Fans of that splendid but under-recognised musician, the late Serbian trumpeter and composer Duško Gojković (1931-2023) will be delighted with this well-presented and lovely-sounding collection of previously unreleased Belgian BRT radio recordings.

Having left Tito’s Yugoslavia in 1956, Gojković spent the next decade developing and honing his sound. He found homes in the USA and what was then West Germany, playing with the likes of Kenny Clarke, Woody Herman and Maynard Ferguson. His breakthrough came when he released the innovative Swinging Macedonia (Philips Germany 1967), a collection of 10 originals that started the genre known as ‘Balkan jazz’. On the back of that album, he was invited to Brussels to record these radio sessions.

The seven tunes here are drawn from Swinging Macedonia (there’s a majestic, swaggering version of ‘The Nights of Skopje’ and a super-swinging ‘The Wedding March Of Alexander The Macedonian’) alongside some new numbers (the impossibly catchy opener ‘The Hot Lick’ was never recorded on any other occasion) and two compositions by the superb Danish saxophonist and long-time Gojković collaborator Bent Jædig. The mood is ‘jazz with an accent’, that accent being Balkan. The rhythms are swinging but sophisticated, the melodies folkish and melancholy and the arrangements rich with colour.

Duško’s blowing is just brilliant: sometimes assertive, sometimes late-night smoky and sad; he is occasionally compared (not always favourably) to Miles Davis, but his trumpet voice here is all his own.

In conclusion, the Sdban label is to be commended for releasing this wonderful LP: we music lovers need more discoveries like this.