Carl Young

Apart from Grieg, no Scandinavian composer has written for the piano with more individuality and insight than Nielsen. Right from the very outset of his Five Piano Pieces, Op. 3, there is no doubt that his is an individual voice. The first emerges from a Schumannesque innocence to speak with personal accents, but all five are strong on humour and character. Nielsen’s greatest piano music is clustered into a period of four years (1916-20) with his final thoughts in the medium, the Three Pieces, Op. 59 of 1928 being composed in the immediate proximity of his Clarinet Concerto, music that already breathes the air of other planets. With the exception of Leif Ove Andsnes, no pianist of international standing has championed it on record, and apart from John Ogdon and John McCabe it has been the almost exclusive preserve of Nordic artists. True, the American scholar Mina Miller, who edited the autographs for the Hansen edition, recorded a complete survey in 1995 – also for Hyperion. But although Schnabel was the dedicatee of the Suite, Op. 45, he never broke a lance for it on the international scene. The Suite is not only Nielsen’s greatest keyboard work but arguably the mightiest ever written in Scandinavia. Martin Roscoe is right inside this music and guides us through its marvels with great subtlety and authority.

The music on this CD is very much in the Young Lions/modern hard bop vein. In this 1989 session, drummer Carl Allen leads a fairly young all-star group - comprised of trumpeter Roy Hargrove, Vincent Herring on alto, soprano, and flute, pianist Donald Brown, and bassist Ira Coleman - through five originals by bandmembers and five standards. Veteran trumpeter Freddie Hubbard sits in on "Piccadilly Square" (a rare chance for one to hear both Hubbard and Hargrove soloing on the same number) and "In the Still of the Night." Few surprises occur, but the musicians (particularly Herring) play up to expectations and fans of hard bop will enjoy this.

Drummer Carl Allen welcomed some of "The Young Lions" to his Atlantic CD, including altoist Vincent Herring, Teodross Avery on tenor, and trumpeter Marcus Printup. The music, essentially modern mainstream jazz circa 1967, is comprised mostly of Allen's originals. Printup sounds like a mixture of Freddie Hubbard and Wynton Marsalis, Herring is content to emulate Cannonball Adderley, and Avery looks toward early John Coltrane; in other words the soloists are generally pretty derivative. Despite that fault, the performances (which have colorful guest appearances from tenor-saxophonist George Coleman and trombonist Steve Turre) are generally enjoyable and hard-swinging.