Tops in Pops

The Phil Woods Six (RCA, 2 LPs).

In addition to being the sweetest saxophone player (soprano and alto) this side of Stan Getz, Phil Woods is one of the toughest, most durable jazz masters. Originally a follower of Charlie ("Bird") Parker, Woods has survived the ups and downs of decades of jazz with a personal style that has never lost its passion or ingenuity. In this extended set, recorded during performance last November at the Showboat Lounge, Silver Spring. Md., he fronts a six-man combo working the mainstream of jazz today. Standard tunes are blended enticingly with originals by Pianist Mike Melillo, Guitarist Harry Leahey and Woods himself, and there is even a breathtaking moto perpetuo treatment of I'm Late from the Disney Alice in Wonderland. How that rabbit runs!

Dickey Betts & Great Southern (Arista). The Allman Brothers Band may have broken up, mostly over the drug and marital problems of Lead Vocalist Gregg Allman, but its brand of bluesy Southern rock lives on with Betts & Co. Betts, whose song writing and soaring guitar solos helped gun the Allman band's engine, keeps his foot to the floor with his new group's debut album. The music moves from hard shakers like Run Gypsy Run to tender love songs like Bougainvillea.

Jesse Winchester: Nothing but a Breeze (Bearsville). "Me, I want to live with my feet in Dixie/ And my head in the cool blue North," sings Jesse Winchester on the title cut of his fifth album. Although he is now a Canadian citizen, having gone north to avoid the draft a decade ago, Winchester has never forsaken his Tennessee roots. His folkish simplicity and Southern warmth go down like good country cider--easily, and with an occasional gentle kick.

Van Morrison: A Period of Transition (Warner Bros.). On his first album in three years, Morrison is neither the rock 'n' roller of his early Belfast days, nor the melismatic improviser he has been through much of the 1970s. A Period of Transition leans toward streetgritty rhythm and blues, and Morrison is backed up by New Orleans Gumbo Rocker Mac ("Dr. John") Rebennack, who is the album's keyboard player and coproducer. Somewhat weakened by repetitiveness (one bit of business is repeated 38 times), the record has little meat but plenty of motion.

Chick Corea: My Spanish Heart (Polydor, 2 LPs). Armando Anthony ("Chick") Corea ranks among the most adventurous and dexterous jazz pianist-composers. Since parting with Miles Davis in 1970, Corea has built an ever-increasing following, largely through the rock-oriented stylings of his group, Return to Forever. Here, Corea steps adroitly through an assortment of Spanish dance rhythms and folk tunes (with some Latin and African thrown in) and produces a tour de force that the pop-music lover should enjoy as much as the jazz buff.

John Coltrane: The Other Village Vanguard Tapes (ABC/Impulse, 2 LPs). At times the late John Coltrane seemed to be probing for notes that were not there and he was once even accused of trying to blow his tenor saxophone apart. Nonetheless, when he got it together there were few musical and emotional peaks he could not reach. At such moments it became easy to understand why he ranked as one of jazz's great innovators. The years 1961 and '62 were a particularly rich period: his quintet included Pianist McCoy Tyner and Saxophonist-Clarinetist-Flutist Eric Dolphy. The proof can be found in these six essays in jazz exploration, recorded live at New York's Village Vanguard and released here for the first time.

Kate & Anna McGarrigle: Dancer with Bruised Knees (Warner Bros.). Raised in a French-Canadian village of Quebec, the McGarrigle sisters blend their pure soprano voices with a wheezing accordion, fiddles, recorders and an occasional mandolin. The result is simple folk music that has the appeal of a quilted comforter. The McGarrigles. who are best known for Anna's Heart Like a Wheel, which Linda Ronstadt turned into a hit, are a pleasing throwback to the time when honest sentiment meant more than slickness.

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