Album: Jon Manasse, Jon Nakamatsu, Bernstein, Gershwin, Novacek, D'Rivera: American Music for Clarinet & Piano (Harmonia Mundi)

The clarinet and piano combination employed by "the two Jons" offers the quintessential jazz-age flavour reflecting the self-confidence of the US in the early 20th century.

Oddly, that spirit is better represented here in the works of the younger composers John Novacek and Paquito D'Rivera than by Bernstein's Sonata for Clarinet and Piano and Gershwin's Three Preludes, both of which have a sombre mood. By contrast, the retro-ragtime style of Novacek's Four Rags for Two Jons evokes the bustling charm of 1940s Manhattan, while D'Rivera's four-part The Cape Cod Files ranges from a swinging boogie to a more wistful, Argentinian tango-style piece.

DOWNLOAD THIS Four Rags for Two Jons; The Cape Cod Files; Three Preludes