Michael Buckley: "The Pendulum (IMC) Dial-a-track code: 1641

Among a good batch of new IMC releases this one is personally, a standout. Recorded in Dublin last November and launched here this week, it features tenor Michael Buckley with the mighty bass of Wayne Batchelor and the superior drumming of Darren Beekett. Although precedents albeit rare - exist for tenor-bass-drums trios, notably those led by Sonny Rollins and, more recently, Joe Henderson, whose influences suffuse this brilliant session, it's a measure of this threesome that they don't suffer by comparison. Individually and collectively they're a joy, by turns sardonic and witty, Buckley is endlessly inventive, coating some beautifully sustained, logical improvisations with a vocally malleable tone. Trios of any nationality seldom come any better than this.

Frank Capp: "Play It Again Sam (Concord) Dial-a-track code: 1751

The benign ghost of Count Basie looms over this late 1996 recording from Capp's Juggernaut big band. That's because the charts - and all but two of the 12 compositions - are by Sammy Nestico, who did much to colour Basie's output for almost two decades: The Juggernaut is - whisper it - possibly even better than Basie's fine late bands were at these arrangements; there's a power, precision and sheer joie de vivre about it that would be difficult to surpass. It has, too, marvellous soloists to match the writing, among them Conte Candoli, Andy Martip and Pete Christlieb. And if the brass sections are superb, the reeds are even more impressive in what is probably the best Juggernaut release yet.

Fintan O'Neill: "In The Moment (Amosaya) Dial-a-track code: 1961

The marvellous quintet Dublin pianist Fintan O Neill brought from New York to Cork two years ago is captured in splendid form back in the Big Apple early last year. With a trout line of Brian Lynch and Billy Pierce backed by an in-form rhythm section, the group's lineage runs from Clifford Brown-Max Roach and Blakey to Herbie Hancock - hop with a contemporary flavour, dispensed by a brawl but subtle quintet in whose take-no-prisoners ambience O'Neill (and, on two tracks) guest guitarist Dave O'Rourke more than hold their own.

Lynch is the outstanding soloist with Pierce and O'Neill not far behind, but the album is also a triumph for O'Neill as a composer, whose Miles To Go and Mr Bennett provoke some of the best work all round.