Jazz

Lalo Schifrin: Jazz Suite (Aleph)

Schifrin is best known in jazz for Gillespiana, his early 1960s suite for the great trumpeter, and though he did occasional commissions thereafter for Stan Getz and others, he has written mostly for Hollywood since. More's the pity. This suite, commissioned for Cologne's WDR big band, with guests Jon Faddis (trumpet), David Sanchez (tenor/soprano), Schifrin (piano) and a superb latin rhythm section led by the marvellous drummer, Ignacio Berroa, is one of the best jazz things he's done in years. The band is awesome, powerful and precise, the rhythm a joy, Faddis and Sanchez coruscatingly good. the brilliantly detailed live recording lends clarity to the blend, balance and resourcefulness of Schifrin's difficult but soloist-friendly explorations.

Joe Harriott: Genius (JAZA)

Jamaica-born Joe Harriott was a searingly gifted, volatile and questing alto saxophonist who, arguably, might have been better known had he chosen to settle in New York, rather than the London scene he graced for two decades before his death in 1973. As this previously unreleased material from the 1960s emphatically confirms, he would have taken the Big Apple by storm. It's all small group sessions, some live, some studio, some informal home recording, much of it bop-oriented and some among the most coherent free-form playing of the time. Harriott is astonishing throughout, his absolute mastery of his instrument at all times at the service of a passionately lyrical imagination so distinctive that even the shadow of Parker can't disguise his individuality.