Joe Temperley: Double Duke (Naxos)
Anyone seeking a master-class in baritone saxophone and trombone need look no further than this well-crafted small group mix of Ellingtonia, standards and a couple of now seldom-played jazz originals. Temperley, consistently brilliant and virtuosity personified on baritone, also doubles on bass clarinet and soprano here, and he's matched by a truly gifted trombonist, Wycliff Gordon, whose mobility recalls Frank Rosolino and who can call on a plunger mute technique on a par with Ellington's great exponents of the art, Tricky Sam Nanton and Booty Wood. Both are supported by a quality rhythm section - Eric Reed, Rodney Whitaker and Herlin Riley on piano bass and drums - in what amounts to a particularly well-structured session with plenty of space for some superior blowing by Temperley, Gordon and Reed.
Ray Comiskey
Zoot Sims/Al Cohn/Tony Scott: East Coast Sounds (Jazzland OJC)
Originally released under the name of bassist Trigger Alpert, there's a kind of period charm to these 1950s septet performances which is largely down to the arrangements by Dick Hyman, Marty Paich and Tony Scott. Clarinettist Scott is the only one of these who actually plays here, but he, Sims, Cohn, trombonist Urbie Green and the very under-rated trumpeter, Joe Wilder, emphasise the considerable solo strength the group can call on, with Alpert and the experienced Ed Shaughnessy on drums providing the rhythmic underpinning. Of the arrangers, Paich's work is the most impressive - he gets the fullest sound from the five-man front line and keeps the musical discourse focused - while Hyman's are rather self-consciously clever and Scott's functional. But the soloists are where the main interest lies, and they don't disappoint.
Ray Comiskey