Latest CD releases reviewed
BILL CARROTHERS/MARC COPLAND
Standardized Minium ****
Jazz piano duets usually involve compromise if they're to work; it's as much a question of degree as of talent. What's so compelling about this one is that two musicians as gifted and different as Copland and Carrothers somehow manage to "accompany" each other, yet avoid either leaving the results unfocused or cluttering up the music. Each can - and does - lead, but sometimes there's a subtle sense that the lead is joint, which makes the liberties they take with line and harmony so engaging. And their openness to each other yields great results; the witty engagement with Take The A Train, the stark melancholy of two (very different) takes of Lonely Woman, the elegant dances of You and the Night and the Music and The Needle and the Damage Done, the superb, two-take deconstruction of Blue in Green and the ungainly grace of Monk's Bemsha Swing. Ray Comiskey
ENRICO PIERANUNZI/MARC JOHNSON/JOEY BARON
Ballads CamJazz ****
There are no dramatic gestures here, but behind the unhurried, deceptively simple facade of the music is an intense, subtle, mutual engagement from three exceptional players. Its delicacy reinforces the sense of otherness in Strayhorn's A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing, extracts something deeper than nostalgia from These Foolish Things and drenches Mi sono inamorato di te in an all-embracing romanticism. But Pieranunzi's lovely originals stimulate equally varied and complex responses. The pianist's solos on his own When I Think of You, The Heart of a Child, Sundays, Night After Night and Cabiria's Dream are a total joy, their moods and stories coloured by Johnson's sonorously expressive outings - like a great actor, his bass has sheer presence - and Baron's discreet yet robust drums. http://uk.hmboutique.com Ray Comiskey
STAN TRACEY/GUY BARKER
Let Them Crevulate Trio ***
This relaxed, cross-generational meeting between trumpeter Barker and Tracey's regular trio with Andy Cleyndert (bass) and Clark Tracey (drums) is one that, if it doesn't venture too far out of harbour, at least makes the trip an enjoyable one. Tracey, Ellington and Monk are never far away; here they supply Drop Me Off in Harlem, Strayhorn's My Little Brown Book (a trumpet/piano duet) and Monk's Dream. Standards and originals make up the rest, with Tracey's mordant lament Strange Fruit, and Lullaby of the Leaves (a trumpet/bass duet) particularly striking. It was recorded in three sessions over a period of eight months, which may account for the feeling that some performances don't dig as deeply as others, but Cleyndert continues to be an astonishingly consistent part of a fine rhythm section. www.musicconection.org.uk Ray Comiskey
