It has to be a woman singing. Surely? Not so, Jimmy Scott was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1925, one of ten children, and in his teens he was diagnosed with Kallman's Syndrome, a hormonal deficiency that stunted his growth and trapped his voice in boyhood.

When he sang jazz torch songs, unrelentingly slow and tender and haunting, his phrasing languidly just behind the beat, it was the sound of timeless sadness, as heard on the 1962 recordings of Falling In Love Is Wonderful. Or rather, not heard. Until now these wondrous sessions for Ray Charles's Tangerine label, with Charles on piano and production duties, had been suppressed. Herman Lubinsky, boss of Savoy Records, threatened a lawsuit over ownership of Scott's contract, and the record was pulled. At last it is back, strange and beautiful, seductively unhurried, so against the grain of today. Billie Holiday loved Jimmy's luxuriant liquor of a voice, so too Marvin Gaye, and Nick Cave, Madonna and Bruce Spring-steen are latter-day converts. Dive in and feel the warmth.

Updated: 08:48 Thursday, February 27, 2003