Colin James and the Little Big Band (1994)

On his third American album, Colin James and the Little Band, Vancouver rocker James takes a side trip into pre-rock blues and jump tunes. But this is no poseur's record; he's obviously having a ball on tracks like Roy Brown's ''Cadillac Baby'' and Rosco Gordon's ''Sit Right Here.'' Best of all, the crackling big-band arrangements (courtesy of Roomful of Blues) are a total groove. In short, this album is an uninhibited love letter to an era when music was for dancing, not thinking. A-