Jazz

The latest releases reviewed

JACK CORTNER Fast Track Jazzed Media

Arranger and composer Cortner used New York's first-call elite for his impressive big band leader debut. The musicianship is awesome: the finest track, for example, is a run-through, with the band superbly sight-reading a Lover Man chart new to them and lyrical solos from Bill Mays and Marvin Stamm. As an arranger, Cortner is somewhere between late-era Basie (On the Trail) and the multi-linear writing of Bill Holman (the imaginative treatment of Limehouse Blues, Flimflam Ma'am, the inventively scored closing ensembles of Softly, As in a Morning Sunrise and others), though he's in no great stylistic debt to either. The band ranges from a relaxed mood on Slowdown to a crisp blast on Fast Track. And in the marvellous Stamm (trumpet/flugelhorn), Jim Pugh (trombone), Dave Tofani (alto/tenor) and Mays (piano), Cortner has soloists to match his splendid charts. www.JazzedMedia.com   RAY COMISKEY

JOSHUA REDMAN Back East Nonesuch

Sonny Rollins raised the bar so high on the tenor/bass/drums format 50 years ago that anyone venturing there has to have nerve as well as talent. Joshua Redman has enough of both to emerge unscathed, despite picking three pieces Rollins put through that particular mincer. Changes of rhythm and key (and some use of soprano) help. So do three fine rhythm sections, with drummers

of the calibre of Brian Blade, Eric Harland and Ali Jackson, and bassists Larry Grenadier, Christian McBride and Reuben Rogers. Redman is in fine form as well, evoking a Middle Eastern flavour on East of the Sun and Zarafah, and dialoguing and soloing with consistent imagination throughout. Adding to the attractions - and breaking up the format without destroying the unity of the album - are engaging jousts with saxophonists Joe Lovano, Chris Cheek and Redman's father Dewey, who died shortly after the recording.  RAY COMISKEY

EBERHARD WEBER  Stages of a Long Journey  ECM

Recorded live, this celebration of Weber's 60th birthday looks back on the bassist as composer and player. An indeterminate and successful mix on the amorphous edges of jazz and classical music, and centred on Jan Garbarek's Quartet, with Weber, Rainer Brüninghaus and Marilyn Mazur, augmented by Gary Burton, and the Stuttgart RSO, the retrospective produced fresh, vital responses from all concerned. Weber's scoring for the orchestra on Silent Feet, The Colours of Chloë, the gorgeous Maurizius, Yellow Fields and the emotionally complex title track is by turns lively, restrained, resourceful and beautifully proportioned. The same is true of the exceptional soloists, among whom Burton is magnificent. The quintet shines on Carla Bley's Syndrome, with Brüninghaus striking on piano, while Weber duets brilliantly with Garbarek on Seven Movements and pianist Wolfgang Dauner on Yesterdays. Delightful. www.musicconnection.org.uk    RAY COMISKEY