Apparently Konitz requested Buhles write him a concerto after hearing the composer's ‘Concerto for Orchestra’. ‘Prisma’, the resulting work, occupies the first four performance segments on this album, teaming Konitz with the BSO, the remaining three tracks being devoted to a duo with pianist Wunsch (with whom Konitz had already recorded in 1993), taped on the same occasion. In essence, Konitz's contributions to ‘Prisma’ amount to a series of commentaries on the concerto's various thematic elements, with pianist Munsch interpolating the occasional solo passage. Buhles writes in his programme notes of their common agreement that the concerto's tone should be ‘German Romanti’c, this apparently tapping into Konitz's interest in German music and culture, doubtless prompted by his then residence in Cologne. Whether the writing meets that original intention is not for me to judge, suffice it to say that Konitz finds the setting more than congenial, unwinding that cool sound of his in all sorts of sinuous ways. Cast aside any ideas that this might correspond to Stan Getz and ‘Focus’ this is not a jazz concerto, rather a classical endeavour into which Konitz slots his melodic meanderings and very pleasing it is. None of the four parts ‘Allegro’, ‘Adagio’, ‘Scherzo’ and ‘Allegro Molto’ is overlong. Indeed, the whole concerto lasts for just 17 minutes. Konitz's sound throughout is ethereal, almost distant, Desmond-like, the recording quality quite boxy, the duets best described as stately, certainly contrapuntal, more Wigmore Hall than Ronnie Scott's, shall we say, even to the climactic ‘Body and Soul’. Lennie Tristano, Konitz's early mentor, would surely have approved.