The latest releases reviewed

Tenor saxophonist Harry Allen's working quartet, with Joe Cohn (guitar), Joel Forbes (bass) and Chuck Riggs (drums), has reached a rare level of consistency by simply relying on being very, very good at the tried and tested. The repertoire generally is standards - here it's the Great American Songbook with a British accent - while Allen and Cohn trust their resourcefulness as soloists, and a mutual understanding epitomised by the use of the almost-forgotten mainstream art of joint improvisation.Enhanced, rather than disturbed, by the addition of the ebullient trombone of John Allred on four tracks, the band serves up swinging, cohesive and accessible jazz, with no breaches of the mainstream peace contemplated. That won't be enough for some, but fans of the idiom should find it irresistible. www.musicconnection.org.uk RAY COMISKEY

Consistency doesn't always have to be the infirmity of lesser minds. Oregon - Paul McCandless (reeds), Ralph Towner (classical guitar/piano), Glen Moore (bass) and Mark Walker (drums/ percussion) - have functioned at a high level for so long that excellence is taken for granted. By their audience, perhaps; certainly not by them. Instrumental virtuosity is a given, but another constant is the evidently shared pleasure in music-making. No doubt, the congenial blend of personalities helps, but a factor must also be the contribution that Towner's diverse originals, among others, make to the band's sense of renewal. 1000 Kilometers offers Spanish, north African and classical flavours, even a touch of country hoedown. The music is spacious, rustic, open (two pieces are freely improvised) and impeccably performed. One for aficionados. http://uk.hmboutique.com  RAY COMISKEY

Recorded live with an 11-piece ensemble, this was composer/ orchestrator Mike Westbrook's sui generis 1984 Duke Ellington celebration. No Ducal works, no imitation, despite which its elegance, its gaiety constantly edged with melancholy, its mocking jauntiness, its drive and lyricism reveal Westbrook and Duke - for all their individuality - as brothers in spirit. Remarkableis the way Westbrook builds great, flowingly self-referential edifices of sound, superbly and kaleidoscopically voiced, fromthe simplest of figures and relatively slender instrumental resources. Yet the unity of orchestra and soloists (who include violinist Dominique Pifarély, trombonist DaniloTerenzi and marvellous multi-reedman Chris Biscoe) is total, summed up in a gloriously resolved East Stratford Too-Doo and a memorably voiced (and revoiced) On Duke's Birthday 2. One of the reissues of the year. www.jazzcds.co.uk   RAY COMISKEY