In case you missed the last one…
Eldar, Re-Imagination (Sony BMG Masterworks): The young Kyrgyz-American pianist goes nu-jazz on us. A bit chirpily bright at times, but it’s honest, gutsy music, fueled by the monster drumming of Terreon Gully and the stratospheric guitar of Mike Moreno.
Jason Smith, Tipping Point (MoonJune): Californian drummer with Allan Holdsworth associates Gary Husband on piano/Rhodes, Dave Carpenter on bass. Known to Holdsworth fans as a drummer, Husband is also a gigging pianist — his solo-piano Holdsworth homage, The Things I See, is not to be believed. Check him out here, playing Kenny Wheeler’s monumental “Heyoke.”
Norbert Stein with the NDR Bigband, Graffiti Suite (Pata Music): Two CDs, four extended suites from the German saxophonist. Tough, gritty and expressive, avant-garde in outlook.
Zaid Nasser, Escape from New York (Smalls): Long-awaited debut recording by the alto saxophonist, a fixture of the Smalls scene for years and the son of bassist Jamil Nasser. Fluid, slightly acidic bop conception, in a quartet with Sacha Perry on piano, Ari Roland on bass and Phil Stewart on drums.
Muhal Richard Abrams, Vision Towards Essence (Pi): An hour of elegant/tumultuous solo piano from the AACM master, recorded lived at Guelph in 1998.
Paul Bley, Solo in Mondsee (ECM): Solo piano elegance of an entirely different kind. Consists simply of “Mondsee Variations” nos. I through X, recorded in Austria 2001.
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