Latest releases reviewed

DAVE BINNEY Bastion of Sanity Criss Cross ****

Blowing sessions aren't altoist Binney's thing, but this one, with tenor saxophonist Chris Potter on board, is a coruscating venture that stretches forms as often as it remains within them. Apart from Wayne Shorter's Lester Left Town and Ellington's Heaven, on both of which Potter is absent, Binney wrote all the material, so it's perhaps unsurprising he just shades the solo honours, well though Potter plays. Binney also has the marvellous young Jacob Sacks-Thomas Morgan-Dan Weiss rhythm section he brought to Dublin, although here they're cast mainly in a supporting role, with Sacks getting only a few chances to solo on piano; he takes them well, however, and Binney is astonishingly accomplished.

[ www.crisscrossjazz.comOpens in new window ]

Ray Comiskey

GEBHARD ULLMANN The Big Band Project Soul Note ***

Ullmann, who plays bass clarinet, tenor and soprano on this (mostly) live recording with Germany's NDR Big Band, is a capable if not markedly individual player and boundary-stretcher who composed all the pieces used here. They're interesting enough, but he also got in four arrangers to orchestrate them; stylistically, they're a mishmash, one that tends to overshadow soloists as good as Julian Arguelles, Claus Stötter and (on bass clarinet) Ullmann himself. A curate's egg, then, with the ponderous and overstated side by side with delightfully adventurous playing and writing, often on the same piece. The feeling persists that inside all this sturm und drang is something exceptional struggling to be heard.

[ www.harmoniamundi.comOpens in new window ]

Ray Comiskey

DANISH RADIO JAZZ ORCHESTRA/ JIM MCNEELY Play Bill Evans Stunt *****

Recorded and released only a few years ago, this is a beautiful tribute to pianist Bill Evans that didn't attract the notice it deserved. Six of the eight performances were arranged by Jim McNeely, the DRJO's principal conductor, with two exceptional arrangements by band members Thomas Franck (Blue in Green) and Vincent Nilsson (Theme for Scotty/Gloria's Step). McNeely's writing is superbly measured to the character of each composition. There are striking - and markedly different - orchestrations of such as Very Early, Show-Type Tune, Waltz for Debby, the serial T.T.T.T.T.T.T., a gorgeous Re: Person I Knew and a moving Turn Out the Stars. All are played beautifully by the band, which has notable soloists in Thomas Fryland and Henrik Bolberg Pedersen on flugelhorn, tenor Franck and bassist Thomas Ovesen.

[ www.sundance.dkOpens in new window ]

Ray Comiskey