Latest releases reviewed

CLAUDIO RODITI
Light In The Dark Nagel Heyer
****

A trio with a difference; Roditi (trumpet/ flugelhorn), Klaus Ignatzek (piano) and Jean-Louis Rassinfosse (bass) are three superb craftsmen who bring such skill and empathy to bear on their performances that the results are persuasively savoury. No new ground broken, but almost all the material is by Ignatsek, with two by Roditi and a couple of Brazilian pieces, and the originals are full of character, with just enough harmonic meat to feed the superior soloists that make up the trio. Roditi is amazingly consistent, fluent, lyrical, melodically inventive, both delicate and powerful, while Ignatsek and Rassinfosse are just as arresting in a group whose grasp of structure and the expressive power of light and shade are impressive. www.musicconnection.org.uk Ray Comiskey

DUNSTAN COULBER
I'll Be Around Nagel Heyer
***
Coulber is a rising young clarinetist and tenor so resolutely retro that he seems even more of a throwback than Scott Hamilton was when he emerged almost four decades ago. But if there's a warmly old-timey feel to his approach, especially on tenor, and a clarinet sound that recalls the Goodman era, he has such a fertile vein of melodic imagination to draw on that his lines remain markedly his own. With sympathetic support from John Pearce (piano), Nik Preston (bass) and Clark Tracey (drums) he revisits the Great American Song Book in a thoughtful, attractive and unfussy way; Coulber is a player who prefers to build his solos with a sense of clarity and direction. Whether it will lead him on to newer pastures remains to be seen, but mainstream fans will love his work. www.musicconnection.org.uk Ray Comiskey

JAM SESSION TWO (VARIOUS)
Let's Split Ocium
***
Two rare early 1950s jam sessions illustrate the best and the worst of the genre. Jam Session #5, organised by Norman Granz, includes an uptempo circus on Rhythm changes that defeats all attempts at making sense, save for Roy Eldridge's majestic trumpet; on a much slower Rose Room, Johnny Hodges, Flip Phillips, Illinois Jacquet and Oscar Peterson improve. The second date, Decca's Jazz Studio 1, which also offers two long tracks, is considerably better, with Joe Newman, Paul Quinichette, Frank Foster, Hank Jones, Bennie Green and the brilliant guitar of Johnny Smith intent on musical, rather than gladiatorial, results; their lengthy excursions on Tenderly and Let's Split, a blues, show the jam session at its best. www.musicconnection.org.uk  Ray Comiskey