Paul Simon's association with jazz and blues has been strong and consistent throughout much of his career, and it informs So Beautiful Or So What, out now on Hear Music, in several important ways.
Gospel, a prominent influence on the Rhymin' Simon and Still Crazy After All These Years albums of the 1970s, also figures here.
Blues harmonica man Sonny Terry wails effectively - albeit posthumously - on Love is Eternal Sacred Light, thanks to a sample taken from Train Whistle Blues, and jazz keyboardist Gil Goldstein provides bluesy orchestration for Love and Hard Times.
Terry's is not the only sampled contribution. A 1941 sermon by hellfire preacher the Reverend J.M. Gates is also skilfully woven into the lead track, Getting Ready for Christmas Day.
There's a good deal of jazz in Simon's sophisticated guitar playing, which Elvis Costello praises in an enthusiastic liner note. That was probably notable in 1965 when he was playing English folk clubs and working with Davey Graham, whose tune Angi he recorded on Simon and Garfunkel's Sounds of Silence album.
Graham was a pioneer of world music, who saw nothing odd in playing jazz, blues, folk and Indian and Middle Eastern tunes back to back. Simon's version of Angi (re-spelled as Anji), like Bert Jansch's, includes a quote from the Adderley Brothers' jazz standard Worksong.
