Alan Barnes/David Newton: Summertime (Concord)

Anyone who recalls the great duo concert Barnes and Newton gave in the Royal Irish Academy of Music almost a decade ago will not be surprised at the sheer class of this release. With Barnes playing alto, soprano, clarinet, bass clarinet and tenor, and Newton restricting his great gifts to piano, each turns his virtuoso technique to the making of exceptional mainstream jazz. The result is a gem, beautifully cut from standards and substantial originals into ear-catching shapes of melody and harmony. Graced with a wealth of ideas and almost telepathic empathy between the performers, it has an edge-of-the-seat perfection about it, and an abundance of engrossing detail that belie the exposed setting - and all done in one day's recording. Unbelievable.

- Ray Comiskey

Stan Sulzmann: birthdays, birthdays (Village Life)

Sulzmann is a British saxophonist and composer with an impressive CV - Gil Evans, Getz, Baker, the CBBB - and the talent to match, as this crisp, beautifully-crafted big band album confirms. It's full of bright, contrapuntal, well-ordered writing on attractive themes; the linear and harmonic language, well-established, is used with a distinctive appreciation of the opportunities offered by the material, most of which is his. Midnight, Seeing M and The Thrill Is Gone are delightful, and how the band negotiates the tricky Newness attests its quality. So are the soloists, among them veterans Kenny Wheeler, Derek Watkins, Henry Lowther and Frank Ricotti, and later players like Pete Saberton, Julian Siegel, Martin Hathaway and Pete Hurt. Excellent.

- Ray Comiskey