The latest releases reviewed.
MULGREW MILLER Live At The Kennedy Center Vol 2 MaxJazz ****
Volume Two of pianist Mulgrew Miller's live session reinforces the positive impressions left by its predecessor. Miller is probably the finest active exponent of the piano tradition that runs from Art Tatum through Oscar Peterson and, as Peterson once did, he leads a trio tailored to his requirements. As with Peterson, the piano is the principal voice, but the interaction is a little more fluid, with Rodney Green more assertive on drums and Derrick Hodge perhaps more mobile on bass. Four substantial originals by Miller get an extended, hard-swinging, exciting treatment, including a well-sustained examination of the characterful Song For Darnell, a grooving Farewell To Dogma and a down-home-with-a-difference Eleventh Hour; the only standard, Old Folks, gets a many-faceted, gently swinging medium tempo approach. Recording quality, by the late David Baker, is superb. www.maxjazz.com. RAY COMISKEY
JOE LOVANO/HANK JONES Kids Blue Note ****
Charm is a dubious quality unless it's backed by substance, and Lovano and Jones supply plenty of both on this live album made in New York last year. These "kids" - Jones is 88, Lovano a generation younger - are in prime form, their mutual pleasure evident throughout. Lovano (left), with an attractively querulous tone on tenor and a flow of ideas that never seems to run dry, is a perfect foil for the older man's ageless piano, and though much of the repertoire looks back in time, they find fresh things to say with it; being contemporary is more a question of attitude than style. Striking on a totally enjoyable album is the gently magisterial treatment of Dameron's Soultrane, the haunting Lazy Afternoon, with Lovano on soprano, and the contrasting approaches of tenor and piano to the rhythmic and chordal entanglements of Monk's Four In One. But there are delights everywhere. RAY COMISKEY
DICK DE GRAAF Moving Target Soundroots ***
De Graaf is a fine Dutch tenor in the Joe Henderson mould, but with a more barnstorming approach to almost everything. He has the technique and ideas to back it up and, with a new quartet completed by Jeroen van Vliet (piano/Fender Rhodes), Guus Bakker (bass/electric bass) and Pascal Vermeer (drums), a crisply supportive rhythm section who manage to stay on board no matter what storms de Graaf blows up. He wrote all the music, more than half of which comes from a commission inspired by piano and choral works of Bartók, not that this matters greatly once the quartet gets to grips with them. Taken in isolation, each individual track is impressive, but the cumulative effect is somewhat relentless and the programme could have done with more light and shade. A strong set, nevertheless. www.dickdegraaf.com. RAY COMISKEY
