Stan Tracey: We Still Love You Madly (TAA, 2 CDs)
A brilliantly distinctive response to Ellington material by one of the Duke's (and Thelonious Monk's - they're not so far apart) most individual admirers, this is the first time on CD for two excellent Stan Tracey albums - the 1988 big band bash that gives its title to this reissue, and the 1989 Stan Tracey Plays Duke Ellington duo sessions. An orchestra packed with talent - Peter King, Guy Barker, Alan Skidmore, Art Themen, Chris Pyne, Malcolm Griffiths, Tracey - gets abundant solo space and, some small reservations apart, rises magnificently to pianist and arranger Tracey's elegantly tart but respectful reassessments of the familiar. On the second album, bassist Roy Babbington joins the pianist for an impressive demonstration of Tracey's rare gifts as a performer. By Ray Comiskey
Harry Allen: I Won't Dance (BMG/RCA)
Bossa Nova is a 1960s throwback, but in Allen's hands it's anything but proof that nostalgia isn't what it used to be. The mainstream tenor has moved emphatically under Getz's spell and, in the process seems to have found the influence so emotionally liberating that he is now among the finest in the idiom. Here, with pianist Larry Goldings in a propulsive rhythm section that includes Joe Cohn (guitar), Dennis Irwin (bass) and two Brazilians, Dori Caymmi and Duduka Da Fonseca, he reanimates the genre with an intelligence, virtuosity and unfettered exuberance that make joyous listening. Caymmi doubles as a vocalist, a persuasively idiomatic role he shares with another Brazilian, Maucha Adnet, but the whole has a harder jazz edge than the originals - no bad thing. By Ray Comiskey