Ellman excels

Look out for Last Desert (Pi) by the Threadgillian guitarist-composer Liberty Ellman. A few tracks are streaming ahead of release next month and both 'The Sip' and 'Rubber Flowers' have a lot of life and ideas.

Tuba-flavoured within the group sound that he has written for, Ellman has 'Spectral' Steve, the great Steve Lehman, on alto sax; the trumpeter another Steve, Steve Coleman, brought on when he was a youth, Jonathan Finlayson; there's Jose Davila on tuba who contributes a lot of mobility; Vijay Iyer bassist Stephan Crump crucial in the metrical infrastructure and the Glasperian, Damion Reid on drums in an interesting new context. photo: Bandcamp

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Jerry Bergonzi is a widely admired Boston-born tenor saxophonist blessed with great technique but crucially flair and narrative highly expressive ideas – born to play.

Live sightings in recent years confirm that he is still a force to be reckoned with. And happily first signs of his new record Nearly Blue indicate clearly that he's still not too shabby in the studio.

Tracks are stuffed with a fair smattering of every fan's favourite standards, 'It Might as Well Be Spring,' 'Countdown,' 'How About You,' 'On Green Dolphin Street,' 'We'll Be Together Again' and 'Nice Work If You Can Get It'. The title track sounds, even while curbing my enthusiasm necessarily so, amazing. Note spotted in the video it's the great Stefano Amerio, marlbank's favourite sound engineer here thankfully in his own studio in Udine not on location in somewhere like Lugano where it rarely sounds as good, at the console.

The Gonz has with him Renato Chicco, no me neither, on Hammond B3 organ; and Andrea Michelutti on drums (Michelutti played great brushes letting them dance around wantonly on 2014's Intersecting Lines).

Savant, the label putting out this little beauty, keeping it simple, are indicating a 28 February release. SG

Ellman excels

Nearly blue