The latest releases reviewed.

STEVE KUHN
Live at Birdland
Blue Note
*****

Twenty years after their previous memorable get-together at Birdland, pianist Kuhn, Ron Carter (bass) and Al Foster (drums) assembled there last summer for an engagement that was anything but nostalgic. What emerged was a definitive example of straight-ahead trio playing, though that's too limiting a description for the multi- layered interaction between them. Kuhn was in outstanding form. Unbuttoned on such swingers as If I Were a Bell and a surprisingly uptempo Lotus Blossom, subtly and affectingly lyrical on ballads, he was matched for inventiveness by Carter and the dynamic Foster. A measure of their mutual enjoyment is the deft, barely suggested quotes, including a skeletal Confirmation, whose gushing flow is unhindered despite hints of Three Blind Mice, Thanks for the Memory and Waltzing Matilda. Delightful.   RAY COMISKEY

Download tracks: Stella By Starlight, Confirmation

DINO SALUZZI / ANJA LECHNER
Ojos Negros
ECM
*****

In a series of extraordinarily beautiful and moving performances, Saluzzi and Lechner create music that is neither tango, classical, nor jazz, but beyond category. The compositions, all but one by Saluzzi, reflect his personal experiences, but in the interweaving between his bandoneon and Lechner's superbly singing cello they become, in effect, musical storytelling. Both musicians have an acute awareness of dynamics, of textural blend and contrast, and, above all, of the emotional shape of each performance, which comes only when players are truly inside the music. Much of the playing is rubato; shifts to explicit tango rhythms, when they occur, arise with total rightness. And, like anything of great beauty, the music has an underlying melancholy, even at its lightest and most delicately graceful. One of the CDs of the year. www.musicconnection.org.uk     RAY COMISKEY

Download tracks: El titerere, Serenata

MANUEL ROCHEMAN
Cactus Dance
Nocturne
***

Rocheman is a dynamic pianist with formidable technique, great swing and an almost irresistible urge to tackle everything as if it was his last chance to play. It's exciting and exhilarating in equal measure, and in Scott Colley (bass) and Antonio Sanchez (drums), Rocheman has partners with more than sufficient energy and imagination to support his highly combustible style. But he also tends to adopt a broadly similar approach to each piece, regardless of the nature of the material, especially in his tendency to state his harmonic choices in a heavily emphasised, unambiguous manner. After a while it palls. Yet, paradoxically, the finest tracks are two delicately differentiated takes of I Love You, suggesting a side to his creativity largely unexplored on this album. http://hmboutique.co.uk    RAY COMISKEY