Warren Vache-Alan Barnes: Memories of You (Zephyr)
Producer John Bune's consistently successful approach is to round up his usual suspects - in this case cornettist Vache and saxophonist Barnes, and to put them in front of his peerless house rhythm section: Brian Lemon, Dave Cliff, Dave Green and Allan Ganley. Then he gives them the freedom of the ditty. Simple really. The results are invariably like this latest release in the series - warm, thoughtful, superbly swinging mainstream jazz, delivered by soloists whose sheer class is, at times, astonishing. Vache and Barnes, in particular, are virtuosi; along with Lemon, especially, and Cliff, their work has an insinuatingly melodic grace to match the material. That means standards, some seldom-played jazz originals by Ben Webster, Lester Young and Oliver Nelson, and a dash of Ellingtonia. It works.
Ray Comiskey
John Coltrane: The Best of John Coltrane (Universal)
John Coltrane died in 1967, but his sales live on, as this "Best of" selection culled from his Blue Note, Atlantic and Impulse recordings demonstrates. Fans will have most - if not all - of the albums concerned, so this double CD compilation is really just an introduction for the curious. As such, fine, if a touch "round up the usual suspects"; albums represented include Blue Train, the seminal Giant Steps, My Favourite Things and A Love Supreme, along with Africa Brass, Ballads, Coltrane, encounters with Ellington and the great singer Johnny Hartman - a solid cross-section of his work. Nothing too sonically outre (like, say, Ascension) to scare the horses, though newcomers may feel the meeting with Eric Dolphy in the 1961 Village Vanguard sessions comes close.
Ray Comiskey