Brad Mehldau: Elegiac Cycle (Warner Bros)

Those familiar with Mehldau's trio work may be surprised by this beautiful album, not so much by its "classical" elements - these have been evident before - as the extent to which they suffuse the nine originals of which it is comprised. The album's title aptly describes the tone and form, but not the emotional complexity of the music, all of which is based on the deceptively simple fragment, Bard, book-ending the other pieces. Harmonically, Mehldau makes clear, it all owes much to Schumann, Brahms, Schubert, Chopin and Beethoven; to a degree, too, the rhythmic links to jazz have been loosened. But at their best, particularly in the three longest pieces, Trailer Park Ghost, Goodbye Storyteller and the marvellous Ruckblick, the results are a magnificent vindication of Mehldau's probing spirit. Don't miss his Dublin visit.

By Ray Comiskey

Don Braden: The Fire Within (BMG)

Braden is a gifted tenor, intelligent, poised and instantly identifiable, despite the echoes of Henderson, Rollins and Coltrane in his playing. He does, though, lack something of the cutting-edge sense of discovery these masters possess, and it takes a little of the shine from this otherwise excellent album. Half of it comes from a polished midsummer 1998 session with his working group - Darrell Grant, Dwayne Burno, Cecil Brooks III - on which everyone plays well, and two more good performances from a London date with a trio led by Julian Joseph. The real meat, and Braden's most unbuttoned soloing, is from the final session, a trio with Christian McBride and Jeff "Tain" Watts, with the tenor energised on splendid takes of Solar, Thermo and Fried Bananas by Miles Davis, Freddie Hubbard and Dexter Gordon respectively.

By Ray Comiskey