Album Reviews

Leaving aside the questionable name of this group, the music it produces is splendid. This is resourceful, inventive jazz with fire in its belly, filled with excellent solos.

The band is a quartet of highly experienced Brits – guitarist Jim Mullen, trumpeter Henry Lowther, bassist Dave Green and drummer Stu Butterfield – and they charge through a programme of standards with tremendous verve.

It's a CD of unpretentious pleasures that rewards repeated playings.

Arild Andersen: Green in Blue – Early Quartets (ECM) 19.99

Andersen has been a titan of the European scene for 40 years now, his bass playing a cornerstone of many ECM records. This triple CD revives three out-of-print albums from the '70s, and there is much to admire.

They find him growing in stature as a leader and championing a couple of young players who would go on to have highly distinguished careers, pianist Jon Balke and saxophonist Juhani Aaltonen. The music ranges from rugged energy to a more meditative, folk-influenced feeling.

David Denton

Verdi: Otello EMI Classics 4 56450 2 (2CDs) 17.99

Born in Sheffield, Peter Glossop was the only British baritone to take all of Verdi's major baritone roles at Milan's La Scala opera house, yet was never received with similar acclaim in his homeland. As the sinister Iago, he was in superb voice, sparking off Jon Vickers' powerful portrayal of Otello, while conductor, Herbert von Karajan, was in extrovert mode driving the Berlin Philharmonic with urgency and noisy brilliance. This 1973 recording still sounds good at an inviting price.

Schulhoff: String Quartets No.1 & 2/Five Pieces Naxos 8.570965 5.99

Murdered in a Nazi concentration camp, the Czech-born Erwin Schulhoff, was an exceptionally gifted composer, the two string quartets so readily approachable and just as fine as anything that Shostakovich was to compose.

The North American-based Aviv Quartet grasp with outgoing enthusiasm the musically athletic moments in these multi-coloured scores, their playing superb in every aspect as fascinating sonorities are revealed. The recording quality is fabulous, and I fervently commend it to you.