Agergaard is one of Denmark's top tenor saxophonists. He's been around the block and then some, and has refined what might be said to be a kind of mid-Atlantic approach to his instrument, part Nordic and part – like so many Danish players – inspired by the energy of New York jazz.

I saw him a couple of years back with a quartet that had (if memory serves) Helge Lien on piano and Jon Fält on drums that was truly world-class. This album comes from earlier in his career, apparently released in 1988 for an obscure indie, so this is its first digital incarnation. Even back then Agergaard had that ‘X factor’ that set him apart, and this is very good, well executed jazz. In many ways he is part of a changing Danish jazz scene which was originally influenced by the large number of American ex-pat players that settled in that country – including Dexter Gordon, Stan Getz, Ben Webster, Horace Parlan, Ed Thigpen, Oscar Pettiford, Kenny Drew, Duke Jordan, Thad Jones, Ernie Wilkins and many others – and the desire to express local individuality. Agergaard is part of that transition (such as with his recent New Nordic Quartet), but on Testing 1-2-3-4 the American influence surfaces.

It's an album that deserves a bit of airplay, since many people will be surprised at just how sophisticated the Danish jazz scene was, and currently still is.