Dejan Terzic Quartet: Four For One (Naxos)

The sheer quality of this budget release may surprise anyone unfamiliar with the comparatively little known talents involved. Leader Terzic is a hugely impressive, very musical drummer who has been garnering awards on the Continent, Roberto Di Gioia an accomplished pianist who has clearly listened to Herbie Hancock and the bassist, Dietmar Fuhr, a rock-solid player who has recorded with Dave Liebman. Best of all is the saxophonist; Boston-born George Garzone, on tenor and soprano, is absolutely brilliant, a big-toned, confident, imaginative soloist who bears traces of Coltrane and Rollins in his playing without sounding derivative. The material, three standards and five originals, shows the scope of an excellent, multi-national quartet which sounds like a working group.

Ray Comiskey

Louis Stewart/Brian Dunning: Alone Together (Livia)

It's a treat to have this historic encounter between Stewart and Dunning available on CD. The pick of a weeklong series of lunchtime concerts at the Abbey's Peacock theatre, organised by Gerald Davis 20 years ago, it wears its age extremely well. In an utterly exposed duo setting, the flautist and guitarist put their formidable techniques and inventiveness on the line and at the service of the music. The has a sense of excitement, risk-taking and mutual support and regard which give it a freshness undimmed by the years since. Dunning's time feel is different from Stewart's, but they make a superb pair as they romp through challenges as disparate as those posed by Windows, Inner Urge, Donna Lee and the seldom performed Israel. Marvellous stuff, well recorded.

Ray Comiskey