Dick Morrissey: "Storm Warning!"

HomeGrown HGR 001(42 mins) Dial-a-track code: 1201

Sandy Brown: "McJazz & Friends"

Lake LACD58 (71 mins)

Dial-a-track code: 1311

Warren Vache:

"Talk To Me Baby"

Muse MCD 5547 (57 mins)

Dial-a-track code: 1421

"Jazz Im Amerika Haus Vol 2" Nagel-Heyer CD 012 (76 mins) Dial-a-track code: 1531

The tenor saxophonist Dick Morrissey's 1965 quartet session Storm Warning is something of a collector's item, remembered with pleasure by those lucky enough to have heard it. Now reissued in a strictly limited edition, it's a marvellous example of straight ahead, inventive and highly individual mainstream/ bop. On this session, with Phil Seamen (drums), Harry South (piano - somewhat strangely recorded) and Phil Bates (bass), he is bursting with vitality and ideas. Morrissey has been ill for some time, so this reissue is designed to help him. It costs £9.99 (a sterling bank draft is best), including postage, and can be had from HomeGrown Records at 44 Lawrence Drive, Ickenham, Ruislip UB10 8RW.

Clarinettist Sandy Brown's McJazz is another collector's item, dating from the late 1950s. It's also something to treasure. With long time colleague, Al Fairweather (trumpet), he forged within, the traditional jazz idiom a music so original and personal that it has never really been, equalled. Part jazz, part so called African High Life music, it swings with an irresistible drive. And it's full of imaginative touches, both in terms of original material (mostly by Brown) and its treatment of the traditional pieces included.

The two Warren Vache albums are much more recent. Of the pair, Talk To Me Baby is the better, with this beautiful cornettist leading a stellar septet which includes Howard Alden, Richard Wyands, Michael Moore and Joel Helleny. It dates from last June and, with Vache permutating trios and quartets from the basic group, it's just as elusive of classification as Sandy Brown's Mcjazz. That's enough to place it ahead of Vache's Jazz Im Amerika Haus, a nevertheless splendid live date from 1994 with, among others, Brian Lemon, Dave Green and Allan Ganley.

Jones/Lewis:"Basle 1969"

TCB 02042 (68 mins)

Dial-a-track code: 1641

Charlie Haden: "Now Is The Hour"

Verve 529 827-2 60 mins)

Dial-a-track code: 1751

The Thad Jones-Mel Lewis orchestra remains one of the finest ever to grace the jazz scene, and this first time release of a reasonably well recorded European concert is a pleasure. Packed with great players, the 1969 touring version of the band was one of the best. Although anyone familiar with the band's book will find few, if any, surprises here and other live dates may have surpassed this one - it is simply too good to ignore.

Bassist Charlie Haden's Quartet West, completed by Ernie Watts (tenor), Alan Broadbent (piano) and Larance Marable (drums), is placed in five quartet performances and seven string orchestral settings on this latest CD. Dating from last July, it's remarkable for the quality of the orchestral writing by Broadbent, the diversity of the material and the performances themselves.

Broadbent's arrangements, notably his simple but effective treatment of Lennie Tristano's lovely Requiem (an elegy for Charlie-Parker) are far superior to most writing for strings I've heard in jazz.

Dusko Goykovich: "Bebop City"

Enja ENJ-9015 2 (67 mins)

Dial-a-track code: 1861

Art Farmer: "The Meaning Of Art"

Arabesque AJ0118 (50 mins)

Dial-a-track code: 1971

These are two excellent sessions by two of the finest trumpet/flugelhorn players in jazz. Dusko Goykovich's album comes from late 1994 and, with Kenny Barron and Ralph Moore to help, is one of this exceptional trumpeter's best under his own name, almost as good as his fine Soul Connection. Art Farmer's, from last May, is the latest in a series of outstanding 1990s albums from him, with the great veteran trombonist, Slide Hampton, joining him and the much younger Ron Blake, Geoff Keezer, Kenny Davis and Carl Allen for a programme which, to quote Farmer, has "no familiar hiding places". It shows in the playing.