Latest releases reviewed

JULIAN ARGÜELLES/RONAN GUILFOYLE/JIM BLACK
Live In Dublin
Auand
*****

When this trio played in Dublin the night after their wonderful concert in Cork a few years ago, the question was, would the chemistry still be there? On the evidence of this recording, it was. Inside or outside the loop, their dialogue, mutually supportive and challenging, maintained a gripping level of creative responsiveness, full of wit and lyricism. With Argüelles at times recalling Rollins in his imaginative and successful risk-taking, drummer Black astonishingly and quirkily inventive, and bassist Guilfoyle the infinitely flexible friend at the core, freedom was never allowed to degenerate into incoherence. Their subtlety and sustained creativity over a programme of originals by Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry, Argüelles and Guilfoyle, a spontaneously created piece by the trio and a superbly deconstructed I Wish I Knew make it potentially one of the albums of the year. www.jazzos.comCHARLES LLOYD
Sangam
ECM
***

Lloyd's fascination with Eastern music and philosophy is long established and sangam, meaning "coming together", is its latest musical expression. Recorded with his "other" band (as distinct from his more overtly jazz quartet), this three-way sangam catches Lloyd and his regular drummer, the marvellous Eric Harland, in concert with Zakir Hussain, the great Indian percussionist. For all his talk about communal inspiration, however, Lloyd is emphatically upstaged by Hussain and Harland. Their rhythmic engagement is complete and brilliantly expressed; and the breathtaking tonal colours Hussain extracts from the tabla is equalled by the sensitivity of Harland's reactions to it. But it requires a saxophonist who could bring more to the table than Lloyd does on this occasion. www.musicconnection.org.uk

TOM SCOTT
Bebop United
MCG
***

Tenor saxophonist Scott returns to his roots with a heavyweight group for this live date, leading guest Phil Woods (alto), and Randy Brecker (trumpet), Ronnie Cuber (baritone), Jay Ashby (trombone) and a Gil Goldstein-Duane Burno-Willie Jones rhythm section. It's a take-no-prisoners band which skates through Scott's well-crafted arrangements with blistering élan and solos to match. The repertoire is equally interesting, including Shorter's Children of the Night, Corea's Tones for Jones Bones, Adderley's Sack o' Woe, a couple of standards and some striking Scott originals. Most of all, though, it's the sheer quality of the band and its power and precision, individually and collectively, that leaves the abiding impression. www.musicconnection.org.uk