TITLE: “Work to Do.”

ARTIST: Carl Allen & Rodney Whitaker

STARS: 3 out of 5 Stars

SOUNDS LIKE: A return to the funky soul jazz and hard bop styles of King Curtis and Richard “Groove” Holmes.

By mixing classic R&B, pop and gospel with jazz drummer Carl Allen and bassist Rodney Whitaker update 1960s soul jazz for a new generation with their release “Work to Do.”

Borrowing from the song books of the Isley Brothers, the Beatles, Marvin Gaye and others, the dynamic duo rework popular tunes into a jazz framework with varying results.

Some of the songs here seem little more than instrumental covers, lacking much in improvisational imagination. But other tunes are well developed and highly creative. They take the original melodies of popular tunes and reconfigure them into modal, bossa nova and mainstream jazz creations.

The title track, borrowed from the Isley Brothers comes from the latter camp. With guest Kirk Whalum on tenor sax this becomes a light hearted and funky hard bop excursion.

On Gaye’s “What’s Going On” there seems to be less imagination involved. The band sounds more like your local jazz club set, with each member taking solos that stay safely close to the melody. The same can be said for “Eleanor Rigby’ a by-the-numbers instrumental version of the Beatles tune.

A stand out is the beautiful “With You I’m Born Again.” It starts out with Whitaker’s solemn bowed bass musing before stretching out into a pensive and reflective tone poem.

“Relativity” grooves along on a rock steady beat seasoned with some soulful blowing by Whalum.

“As a drums and bass led group,” Whitaker said from a press release, “we think less about improvisation and we respond more to the audience. If they are not tapping their toes we are not doing our job.”

There’s plenty to tap your toes to on “Work to Do.” Even though in some spots the music is predictable it’s still a huge step above being smooth jazz.