Zoot Sims Meets Hans Koller brings together two distinctive tenor saxophonists whose musical paths had been moving towards each other long before they finally met in Germany in 1958. Koller had long admired Sims and the sound of Woody Herman’s celebrated Four Brothers, making their collaboration a remarkably natural one. This collection combines three vibrant quintet recordings made for Brunswick in Cologne with an earlier live concert produced by Joachim-Ernst Berendt in Baden-Baden, featuring some of Europe’s finest jazz musicians alongside trombonist Willie Dennis and drummer Kenny Clarke. The tenor saxophone remains at the heart of their musical dialogue, with occasional switches to alto and clarinet adding further colour. A fascinating document of American and European jazz speaking the same musical language.

—Jordi Pujol (From the back-liner notes of FSRCD 1174)