Album: Django Bates, Spring Is Here (Lost Marble)

Composer/pianist Bates has been drawing funny faces on the jazz blackboard for nearly 30 years, yet still shows no sign of moving into long trousers.

But this final album in a "four seasons" series, recorded with his new band Stormchaser (from Denmark's Rhythmic Music Conservatory), begins with a gem: "Spring", perhaps inspired by Joe Zawinul, is a life-enhancing song with a vocal by Josefine Lindstrand. From then on, however, passable music is undermined by japes and jokes that, while they may have the Danes rolling in the aisles, raised only a murderous instinct in me.

Pick of the Album: 'Spring': Django's joyful world-fusion groove