Ayako Hosokawa With The Masaru Imada Quartet – No Tears

A prestigious project: the recording of the complete string quartets of Franz Schubert, by the German Diogenes Quartet. Volume 1 offers one masterpiece, the famous Rosamunde Quartet in A minor, and the early quartet in D major D94. Schuberts String Quartets count among the most frequently performed quartets of the repertoire (only rivalled by Beethoven).

Nice mix of work by John Lewis, including his score for No Sun In Venice, key work with the Modern Jazz Quartet/Sextet, and the one-off Modern Jazz Society album showcasing compositions by Lewis.

Art Ellefson was born in Canada in 1932 and took up the tenor sax at sixteen after trying several other instruments. He came to England in 1952 and had a spell with Carl Barriteau from 1952 to 1955 and then Harry Hayes, Roy Fox and Frank Weir before joining Vic Lewis from 1955 to 1957. In the late 1950s he was with the Allan Ganley Quartet and the Allan Ganley - Ronnie Ross Jazzmakers. He toured Britain with Woody Herman's Anglo-American Herd in April 1959. Rejoined Vic Lewis for tour of USA, then co-led a group with Johnny Scott before joining Johnny Dankworth in 1960 and was often in a quintet and sextet led by Ronnie Ross.

The first six selections on this CD are from a long-out-of-print LP featuring the brilliant clarinetist Buddy DeFranco with the Oscar Peterson Quartet (Peterson's trio plus drummer Louie Bellson). While the six selections are all standards, DeFranco and Peterson produce plenty of fireworks with the majority of the numbers being taken up-tempo. DeFranco sounds flawless on clarinet, making it sound so easy to play lightning-fast runs; few other clarinetists have ever come close. Recommended.