The latest releases reviewed.

CHARLES TOLLIVER With Love Blue Note/Mosaic ***

Inhabiting an area where hard bop and avant garde rub against each other, trumpeter, composer and arranger Charles Tolliver tends to be overlooked. Despite his long career, this new big band album is only his first as a leader for Blue Note. Tolliver's typically uncompromising, bristling charts for a powerful ensemble, which includes longtime colleagues Stanley Cowell (piano) and Cecil McBee (bass), are packed with contrapuntal incident. 'Round Midnight, for example, is squeezed through any number of hoops. Behind the in-your-face ensembles, there's a controlled wildness and a notable orchestrator who combines the influence, perhaps, of Gerald Wilson with the raw passion of Mingus. Tolliver's distinctive trumpet is heard on all but one of his six originals, while other soloists include Cowell, McBee, pianist Robert Glasper and saxophonists Craig Handy and Billy Harper.

OSCAR PETERSON/RAY BROWN/MILT JACKSON What's Up? Telarc ***

Jackson, Peterson and Brown first recorded their celebrated Very Tall album with drummer Ed Thigpen in 1961. They returned to the format with different drummers over the years until their last hurrah in 1998, from which this previously unreleased live material comes. With Karriem Riggins on drums, What's Up? is a relaxed blowing session with just enough competitiveness to give it an edge. Although time had slightly muffled Peterson's effusiveness, he remained capable of obliterating almost anyone except someone of Jackson's mettle. Over familiar ground (some standards, a blues, the jazz originals Salt Peanuts and Squatty Roo) and despite having less than a year to live, Jackson retained the power to impress and emerged the star of this ebullient joust. The quartet clearly enjoyed it. So did the audience. www.musicconnection.org.uk