The latest releases reveiwed

In addition to his performance career, Taylor teaches piano at London's Guildhall, from whose students he assembled a big band to record six of his compositions. Presumably he also did the orchestrations. The multifaceted writing - with its abundance of ideas, deftly voiced sections so freely broken up and recombined, and constantly shifting time signatures - is authoritative and individual. Allowing for occasional roughness or slight hesitancy (and a rather boxy recording) the band handles these demanding charts well. Taylor takes the piano chair and solos on all but one track, which helps, and there are some fine soloists, the best of whom is Tom Challenger on tenor and soprano, with solid contributions from Fulvio Sigurtà (on flugelhorn, though the sleeve says trumpet) and Rob Dowling (bass clarinet) among others. http://uk.hmboutique.com RAY COMISKEY

Dominican pianist Camilo's new trio brings together two Cubans - Charles Flores (bass) and Dafnis Prieto (drums) - for an exciting three-part programme reflecting their shared Caribbean and jazz roots. And while the first more closely evokes the latin elements, the second the jazz roots and the third a more forward-looking approach, they're essentially unified. Different takes on the blues surface in all three, for example, and jazz standards Nefertiti, Nardis, Giant Steps and Solar are in the second or third parts. What's striking about the music (which, standards excepted, Camilo composed) is the many-faceted brilliance that he and his trio bring to bear on it; the jazz and Caribbean roots are internalised, mutually renewed and expressed with coherence and unity. It's dazzling, virtuosic and imaginative, and leaves one wishing Camilo had developed it even further. www.musicconnection.org.uk RAY COMISKEY

Katz, who played cello in Chico Hamilton's 1950s quintet (and scored Roger Corman horror flicks) also arranged and conducted this late-1950s exploration of American, African and Hebrew folk music to make some jazz points about universal roots, experimentation and embracing other cultures. The four American pieces, though somewhat self-consciously arranged, have fine solo work from the exceptional Billy Bean (guitar), John Williams (piano) and Gene Estes (vibes), while the two Hebrew tunes offer attractively classical counterpoint from a woodwind ensemble that includes Paul Horn (alto/flute) and Buddy Collette (flute). Least successful, despite their polyrhythmic and polyphonic communal feel, are the brass-and- percussion African pieces. In this Katz wasn't ahead of his time, but he took it further than most. The results are never less than intriguing - and sometimes they're more than that. www.rebootstereophonic.com  RAY COMISKEY