DR Big Band Feat. Mike Stern Chromazone (2008)

Fresh from the sudden success of Jazz Samba and "Desafinado," Stan Getz asked the 28-year-old, strikingly gifted Gary McFarland to arrange a bossa nova album for big band as a follow-up. Getz is always his debonair, wistful, freely-floating self, completely at home in the Brazilian idiom that he'd adopted only a few months before. McFarland usually keeps things nice and spare (although "One Note Samba" is uncharacteristically cluttered and a bit too discordant for the material), letting his pungent voicings stab the air now and then, while allowing the soloists all the room they want within the confines of producer Creed Taylor's tight timings. Four of the eight songs are by McFarland (none of which would become standards), and Getz makes relaxed impressions with "Manha de Carnival" and "Chega de Saudade." Jim Hall takes the role of acoustic guitarist from Charlie Byrd with his usual fluidity…

Peter Jensen is working as the artistic director in the Tivoli Gardens and as counselor at the Advanced Postgraduate Diploma at RMC – Rhythmic Music Conservatorium, in Copenhagen.

Blood Red, composed by Mikko Hassinen, is a kind of soundtrack to a fictional story taking place in late 16th-century Istanbul.

Reed player Vidar Johansen's arrangements for John Coltrane's iconic Meditations (Impulse!, 1966) were recorded live at the Nattjazz festival in Bergen in May 2007. Johansen's arrangements stress Coltrane's melodic themes over the intense and sometimes violent sonic explorations of the Coltrane quartet that was augmented with Pharaoh Sanders on second tenor saxophone and Rashied Ali on drums. His arrangements, appropriately reverential, still call for spirited and passionate conviction from all the musicians, as befits such a monumental work.