" data-original-title="" title="">Mike LeDonne's latest recording, Wonderful!, is a labor of love on several levels. Of course, there is love of the music and love of accomplishing something that had not been done before—teaming a gospel choir with jazz quartet. Above all else, there is love for LeDonne's wife, Margaret, and daughter Mary who is disabled but, as LeDonne says, is nonetheless "truly wonderful."

LeDonne wrote the album's title song for Mary, wherein he compares her to "a river in the desert" and "a mighty ship at sea" and declares that "you are wonderful to me." It's a sentiment that resurfaces on one of the session's trio of instrumental numbers, "Make Someone Happy," written by Jule Styne, Betty Comden and Adolph Green for the Broadway musical Do Re Mi. The choir sings on the other five, starting with the light-hearted opener, "Let Us Go," and including, along with "Wonderful," the fast-moving "Put It Back," soulful "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing" and