Alphabetically speaking, I'm lingering in the land of "G" in picking out some things to listen to on these summer days... and, generally, "G" stands for "good" and "gratifying." Let's get going with the grand The Great Gatsby.

THE GREAT GATSBY
ORIGINAL BROADWAY CAST
Masterworks Broadway (Sony)
Digital | CD to be released 8/2

The ambitious and sometimes sumptuous score of the current Broadway attraction, the super-sized musicalization of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby is represented by its bustling and bold cast recording. In the title role, Jeremy Jordan is dynamic and dazzling. While his singing can be sizzling or soaring, I find the most affecting passages to be when the proceedings showcase his high, pretty head voice. It's disarming in the midst of some bombast and confrontations. His sweet tones radiating through the song "For Her" make that number, for me, the most rewarding piece in the score by Jason Howland (music) and Nathan Tysen (lyrics). There are sturdy, strong-voiced, committed performances by such cast members as Eva Noblezada as the object of Gatsby's long-burning affection/obsession, Daisy, and John Zdrojeski as her husband Tom, as well as Samantha Pauly and Noah J. Ricketts in other key roles (Jordan and Nick, respectively).

While adaptations of beloved classic works of literature can have an uphill battle to satisfy fervent fans - and this musicalization is no exception - I'll leave any debates and disappointments about changes in characterizations, situations, tone, and texture to others. Our purpose here is to consider the recording's performances on their own merits, not in comparison to the novel or other stage or film treatments.

There's much that's diverting or dramatic in the lengthy recording–23 tracks, including a few reprises, and lines from the dialogue by Kait Kerrigan, who also penned the liner notes for the attractive booklet that has the lyrics and plenty of color photos.

Tension, jealousies, resentments, and determination are palpable in the performances. Class differences and cavalierly crass indifference come through in the contrasting characterizations and expressed attitudes. Note the actors' skills at showing hints of melancholy, disillusion, and foreboding lurking under the glitz and the paraded confidence or indifference of the people they're playing. There's a frantic desperation and unquenchable thirst for satisfaction in the party-crazed "Roaring On" for the ensemble. It's the relentlessly high-energy number that bookends the show. An oft-employed M.O. in the approach to songs is that there may be an effectively direct first section and then they turn up the juice to get big-bigger-biggest/ busy-busier-busiest with sound, often sending in the chorus to amplify and repeat, sometimes brashly intoning open vowel sounds rather than words (which might be sung at the same time by protagonists). A little of that approach goes a long way when it becomes a frequent formula. (The composer is a major contributor to the arrangements and orchestrations.) Some variety comes in character moments from Sara Chase's thick-accented, somewhat comical Myrtle and the slinky "Shady" for Eric Anderson.

Especially entertaining and adept is the lyric of "New Money," pointedly painting the lifestyle of those recently coming into wealth, with neat wordplay and rhymes ("When your money makes you money, what's the well-to-do to do?...Young, rich and wild/ Reveled, reviled...When it's scanty/ Up the ante"). The Great Gatsby cast recording is a powerhouse that powers its way through catered affairs, extramarital affairs, deception, folly, turmoil and tragedy.

VARIOUS ARTISTS
PARTING GIFT: THE SONGS OF GERALD GINSBURG
PS Classics
Digital | CD

Here's a welcome, classy and gorgeous discovery: 24 poems by such iconic writers as Percy Bysshe Shelley, Langston Hughes, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and e. e. cummings that were set to striking music by the late Gerald Ginsburg, recorded by up-for-the-task actor-singers who include Broadway veterans. Only occasionally does a performance have the heavy air of a distancingly formal "art song" recital. Generally, the interpretations are refreshingly accessible, emotionally vulnerable, and nuanced. If you are poetry-phobic, don't hesitate to give Parting Gift: The Songs of Gerald Ginsburg a chance. It's a bonanza of beauty and tenderness, gracefully executed.

Some artists appear twice, others only once. I wish Kelli O'Hara had more than a single song - It's called "A Single Song," from Sara Teasdale's poem "Compensation" - but it's glorious, starting Parting Gift with a shimmering showcase. Colin Donnell and Patti Murin, Mr. and Mrs. offstage, have a splendid solo each and one shared track. Jordan Donica's two appearances recall the grandly heroic persona he exhibited in his recent role as Lancelot in Camelot and Jason Danieley, likewise, shows both vulnerable and bravura sides. Other standouts are the contributions by the reliable messengers of poignancy Victoria Clark, Elizabeth Stanley, and Philip Chaffin. The rich voice of Elena Shaddow deftly handles Parting Gift's titular poem by Elinor Wylie.

Reappearing subject matter that give the cornucopia some connective tissue are the references to the changing seasons, images of Nature, intense love, the pang of memories, and the specter of time. Those more acquainted with famous poems set to music may well have come across the words married to melodies of other composers who got there first. There's more than one way to coat and enhance language (and comparisons can be intriguing and interesting). Others may just know some of the pieces unmarried to melodies - or not at all. I find these performances enchanting and rich, packing much impact despite their mostly short playing lengths (often well under two minutes). Richard Carsey conducts a 17-piece orchestra, with often glorious orchestrations by various contributors, including musical theatre veterans Jonathan Tunick and Michael Starobin.

Special thanks to PS Classics for this oasis of elegance in our contemporary world of musical noise and razzamatazz. What a treat to have this combination of theatricality, melody, and artful verbiage.

HILARY GARDNER
ON THE TRAIL WITH THE LONESOME PINES
Anzic Records
CD | Digital

Imagine yourself serenely sitting around a campfire, listening to old cowboy songs, as a guitar strums, or taking an easy-does-it ride on horseback as you take in the view, thinking what a beautiful morning it is, not unlike protagonist Curly in the musical Oklahoma!. But the flavor is less redolent of Richard Rodgers and more akin to Roy Rogers, the singing cowboy, in the charming On the Trail with The Lonesome Pines. Settled into a relaxing vibe, vocalist Hilary Gardner forges a path leading us back to the Old West at a (mostly) gentle trot. The evocative results are a rare pleasure. Singing with supreme ease and a lack of guile, the lady who grew up in Alaska and who now lives in Brooklyn, sounds at home in her adopted musical setting and era. She does not come across as a performer who came across a box of costumes and is tentatively trying on a cowgirl hat and spurs.

Naysayers may grouse about a lack of variety, opining that The Lonesome Pines and the vocals in cozy, adagio mode bring us several tracks too similar in tone, tempo, and subject matter ("Along the Navajo Trail," "Along the Santa Fe Trail," "Twilight on the Trail"). If some blur together, it's a lovely blur and Hilary Gardner's soothingly smooth croon is a blissful balm to revel in as she projects calm contentment. But, in a more playful mindset, there's a switch from languid to lively with a couple of items written for the movies: With his own melody, there's Johnny Mercer's lyric about the guy who admits that he "never roped a steer" and his travels on the trail are by automobile - "I'm an Old Cowhand (from the Rio Grande)" - and the peppy "(I Got Spurs That) Jingle Jangle Jingle" by Frank Loesser and Joseph J. Lilley.

The splendid musicians are dubbed The Lonesome Pines for this project–an image-appropriate sobriquet. They are Justin Poindexter (guitar, mandolin, organ, additional vocals), Noah Garabedian (bass), and Aaron Thurston (percussion). Sasha Papernik guests on accordion on two tracks. She happens to be the wife of Mr. Poindexter and, in similar spousal synergy, the singer's husband, Eli Wolf, is the recording's producer, taking the reins on this cowboy project as he's done for other artists such as Norah Jones.

This is a delicious "trail mix" for those of us with a soft spot for the nostalgia of the rarely reprised category of song, especially welcome without artifice, twang, sounds of guns shooting or horses neighing, or any cloying cliché s along the road. Enjoy the ride.

HANNAH GILL
EVERYBODY LOVES A LOVER
Turtle Bay Records
CD | Digital | Vinyl

There's a confident and breezy sensibility to singer Hannah Gill's radiant retro recording called Everybody Loves a Lover. Often a joy ride, the trip through old songs and styles by the savvy singer also has detours to the sad side, but qualities of resilience in her persona prevent crash landings in gloom-and-doom territory. In the post-mortem of an unrequited romance "This Will Make You Laugh," she does not surrender dignity in what could be a self-pity party or lay a guilt trip on the other person she's addressing while confessing, "I love you still, you see/ This will make you laugh, but it's not funny to me." And a decidedly non-droopy pace undercuts the expected sorrow of missing a departed lover in "Autumn Leaves" makes that potential weeper not so many emotional miles away from the other deciduous-themed ballad, the placid "Lullabye of the Leaves."

Arrangements are by trumpeter Danny Jonokuchi, one of seven nimble musicians on hand for this quite satisfying collection of 11 numbers. Instrumental breaks have gusto and keep my attention. The surface content of lyrics in Everybody Loves a Lover's selections may swing back and forth between glad and sad, but the common swing style prevents a jarring juxtaposition. Thus, Hannah Gill's recorded recital feels balanced and symmetrical as a whole - and isn't that apt for someone whose first name is a palindrome?

The plucky title song of Everybody Loves a Lover was a hit for Doris Day and the tight arrangement here pays homage to the Day way in tempo and having the singer's voice double-tracked in one attention-grabbing section, allowing different lines of the lyric to overlap in this 1958 work by Richard Adler and Robert Allen. It's addictive and fun. Memories of Doris Day are also stirred by two other inclusions of numbers the star sang in movies earlier in that decade: "Put 'Em in a Box, Tie 'Em with a Ribbon (and Throw 'Em in the Deep Blue Sea)," written by Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn, and the standard "You're Getting to Be a Habit with Me." I belatedly became aware of Ms. Gill's skills, but listening to this set and earlier efforts is getting to be a habit with me.

CECE GABLE
LOVE ON THE TYRRHENIAN
CCGable
CD | Digital

The latest album by Reno, Nevada-based singer CeCe Gable is partially a travelog. The likeable performer's trip through tunes includes Irving Berlin's "I'll See You in C-U-B-A" (whimsical and cute), the Cy Coleman/ Joseph McCarthy paean to "The Riviera" (a number originally intended for the Broadway revue John Murray Anderson's Almanac) and a jazzy journey on a "Little Boat," a bossa nova imported from Brazil. "Any Place I Hang My Hat Is Home" from the 1946 Broadway musical St. Louis Woman tells of wanderlust, with specific places and general destinations named. And then there's the title song of Love on the Tyrrhenian, referencing the sea near Italy, inspired by a trip to sing in that country, with her own words and a melody by her friend Corky Brumble.

The ten tracks include a second atmosphere-specific Gable/Brumble item, "Once Again It's Winter." It was previously issued as a single. Also previously released (on an earlier album) is her recording of the standard "You and the Night and the Music," with the lyric line "Our hearts will be throbbing guitars" cues that mentioned instrument's sound. Intentionally or otherwise, she changes one word both times the line "If we must live for the moment, love while the moment is new" appears, replacing the verb "live" with "love."

CeCe Gable's voice is not a pristine, crystalline one, but it has an appealing lived-in quality, a sometimes throaty sound that has texture and personality. She sounds more secure on some selections than in others, in her intonation and the melodic line's flow. "Say It Isn't So," a second Irving Berlin choice, doesn't find her settled in a comfort zone with this wary ballad fearing a break-up. But, generally, Miss Gable is more than able to invest feeling and flavor into her eclectic mix of fine material.