Shearing brought Crosby and Fournier together one last time for Jazz Moments, an album of promise and quality. It was also Crosby’s final recording before his untimely death, which makes it poignant, and even painful, to listen to—hence its position here, rather than because of its quality, which is high.
He is on exceptional form; by now he and the drummer were so tight they could practically brush each other’s teeth. The extent of what was lost when Crosby joined the great jazz combo in the sky is evident on his ultra-cool, even nonchalant-sounding, always technically brilliant solo work on songs such as ‘Making Whoopie’, or the smoothly-delivered fullness of the plaintive ‘What’s New?’ which is part blues regret and part silent movie soundtrack.