This has to be one of the finest jazz trios to come out of Hungary (let’s ignore the haircuts and the suits).  The late, great, Aladár Pege on double bass, the brilliant Gusztáv Csík on piano and some impeccably tight drumming from Géza Lakatos Pecek.  They make this Miles Davis classic (wrongly attributed to Charlie Parker) really swing. Fantastic jazz.  Watch the way the classically trained Pege tears through his solo whilst not looking at his bass once.  No wonder he was called the Paginini of the double bass.  In my book he’s right up there with the legendary NHOP.

I’d always thought that the jazz guitarist Joe Pass was a purveyor of languid, ballady style, laid back jazz-riffs with an extensive use of walking bass lines.  Nice, in an afternoon tea sort of way, but not exactly taxing for the performer or the listener. How wrong can you be? This little gem surfaced and my jaw hit the keyboard before the end of the opening bars. Here he is, in 1979, at the very height of his powers, accompanied by that towering virtuoso of the Double Bass, Niels Henning-Orsted Pedersen, playing the fantastic Miles Davis composition Donna Lee. What a stroke of genius to transpose a trumpet composition and play it on two stringed instruments.