The CV of Derek Bermel (b1967) is as varied and colourful as his music. A clarinettist as well as a composer by trade, the list of his collaborations is extensive and high-profile: the American Composers, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Pacific, Pittsburgh and Seattle Symphony orchestras; Gustavo Dudamel, Tan Dun, Midori, Wynton Marsalis, the Guarnieri and Jack Quartets, the Asko|Schoenberg Ensemble, the Lincoln Center Chamber Music and Jazz ensembles and many more.

Stylistically, Bermel’s music is not just eclectic but bracingly so. The three works here are nothing if not exciting, compelling attention from the very first bars. The five-movement suite Migration Series (2006) was commissioned by Marsalis for Lincoln Center and, unlike most attempts to fuse these jazz and classical genres, Bermel succeeds with Bernsteinian élan. His orchestration is vivid – with touches of Lalo Schifrin, Ives, Copland and a number of jazz stars (Thelonious Monk not least) – but always seems an organic part of the composition, growing out of the jazzy harmonies and melodies, rather than something grafted on as an afterthought.

Migration Series was inspired by a series of paintings by Jacob Lawrence on the subject of African Americans migrating from the southern to the northern States. The brief song set Mar de Setembro (‘September Sea’, 2011) was written for the Brazilian vocalist Luciana Souza and its five songs, setting texts by Eugénio de Andrade, incorporate non-classical popular elements in their exploration of Latin American longing. The sense of loss deepens in the final piece, A Shout, A Whisper, and a Trace (2009), Bermel’s reflection on Bartók’s final years in New York. Curiously, there are touches of Stravinsky, Messiaen, even Villa-Lobos along the way in this vibrant score. The Albany Symphony Orchestra, with their various partners, play superbly – and idiomatically – throughout. Fine sound, too. Recommended.