The talented titulaire of the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester is as much at home on the organ as he is at the piano, whether in the core classical repertoire or playing jazz. His latest disc combines improvisation, one of the traditional skills of the church organist, with that of jazz arranger. ‘I have always wanted to represent [the classical and jazz worlds] on the organ,’ he writes, ‘and to show that this most diverse of all instruments can create another dimension outside the more traditional routes of classical music.’

The results are impressive, helped not a little by the symphonic scope of the 83-stop 2005 Schuke organ in the Luxembourg Philharmonie. The nearly-26-minute ‘improvisation’ (though surely a worked-up piece rather than a completely spontaneous creation) on themes from West Side Story begins with ‘Tonight’ in the style of a grand jeu Vierne fanfare and ends exuberantly, by way of ‘America’ and ‘One hand, one heart’, with a clever fugal treatment of ‘I feel pretty’. A second substantial (15'33") improvisation on themes from Bernstein’s Candide and a more straightforward account of his Wonderful Town Overture follow a ruminative improvisation on Jule Styne’s song ‘People’ showing off the organ’s wonderful array of soft colours (including such exoticisms as an 8ft Piffaro and Aeoline).

The sequence of Rhapsody in Blue’s jazz-harmonised themes is the one item that didn’t work for me. After all those flattened ninths and augmented 11ths, I longed for the work’s big tune to be played ‘straight’. Perhaps best sampled one improvisation at a time, the disc is still a terrific showcase for Marshall’s audacious imagination and technique.