"I've been asked many times to list my favorite CDs, but because I listen to so many things, that list would change weekly. So, I have chosen my ten favorites of all time - the CDs I could listen to every day...

Charles Mingus: The Black Saint and The Sinner Lady
I chose this CD because I love everything that Mingus have ever done. For me, this particular record contains some of his greatest writing and has a really amazing atmosphere throughout.

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Louis Armstrong: Hot Fives And Hot Sevens
The classic Louis Armstrong recordings...everyone has their favorite, whether it's 'West End Blues' or 'Cornet Chop Suey' etc etc, but if you listen to every single track, you realise that everyone is on the same great virtuosic and musically high. Simply one of the great Jazz recordings ever. As well as this recording, Sony Records released a box set of all of these (2000).

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Miles Davis: Kind Of Blue
This is in everybody's top ten album list - if you listen to it every day for a hundred years, you'd still be learning something new from it.

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John Coltrane: Love Supreme
Another classic CD - it was the first John Coltrane album I ever heard and it moved me...a true catalyst of an album.

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Bartok: String Quartets - The Hagen Quartett
I've always had a great love for classical music, particularly the 20th Century masters. It was said that when Bartok wrote his string quartets, he knew they would be playable one day; in other words, he really knew he was stretching the possibilities of writing for a String Quartet. When I listen to the Deutsche Grammophon recording, I hear things I've never heard before.

Messiaen: La nativite du Seigneur
I first heard this piece played at a concert in a church in Paris, then in London and I've never heard so many sounds come from one instrument..a truly beautiful piece of music written by one of the greatest composers and improvisors of the 20th Century.

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Clifford Brown / Sonny Rollins: Plus 4
This was the first Clifford Brown album I ever heard and it prompted me to go and collect every recording this great trumpet player ever made. A truly great Jazz musician and every modern trumpet players idol.

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Arthur Honnegger: 5 Symphonies
Arthur Honegger has been a composer I have always loved and admired. I couldn't describe why, all I know is when I hear his music it really touches me.. he is generally known for his orchestral suite 'Pacific 231,' but he has a huge wealth of other work, both symphonic and chamber, and was a great prolific film composer.

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Duke Ellington / Billy Strayhorn - Such Sweet Thunder
One of the greatest collaborations in Jazz. This features all the great Ellington soloists - Johnny Hodges, Harry Carney, Cat Anderson, Clark Terry etc and particularly, one of the most beautiful ballads, 'Star Crossed Lovers,' which started out as another tune written by Billy Strayhorn some years earlier (I think it's was 'Pretty Girl'). This album is full of those wonderful Strayhorn melodies, but, yet again, on this recording, Mr Strayhorn hardly gets a mention.

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Thelonius Monk: Live at the Five Spot
A wonderful opportunity to hear Monk, Coltrane and Roy Haynes playing in a small club during an extremely long residency. For me, it is one of the most exciting Jazz performances I've ever heard."

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