Latest releases reviewed

KETIL BJØRNSTAD
Floating
Universal
*****

Amazingly, given his lengthy career, this is pianist Ketil Bjørnstad's first recording in the classic trio format. With him on an outstandingly beautiful album are the formidable talents of Palle Danielsson (bass) and Marilyn Mazur (drums). There's a contemplative, Nordic cast to the music, though without the chill. Bjørnstad, who wrote all the pieces, is a spare, lyrical melodist who leaves plenty of room for Danielsson to dialogue and for Mazur, a supreme colourist, to add warmth and depth to the textures. Danielsson's dramatic, singing bass lines make a splendid foil and contrast for Bjørnstad, both as accompanist and soloist, and the trio's work is constantly fresh, vibrant and arresting. There's nothing superfluous, no grand gestures. The recording quality, by the great Jan Erik Kongshaug (at his new Oslo studio with a new Steinway), is miraculous.

JOHN MCNEIL
East Coast Cool
OmniTone
****

Trumpeter McNeil has taken the old Gerry Mulligan pianoless quartet format, using a brilliant baritone saxophonist, Allan Chase, with John Hebert (bass) and Matt Wilson (drums) and, with modern freedoms, given it a contemporary cast. The pieces, composed mostly by McNeil, have some organising principle: a tonal centre, rhythmic approach, sometimes chords, with the players at liberty to work around it and Mulligan's polyphony and strict tempos largely gone. The results are deceptive, accessible but highly adventurous. And though there's an occasionally experimental cast to the music, it's a rewarding experience. Surprisingly, it's Chase and Wilson, more than McNeil, who emerge as the most creatively at home performers. -  www.OmniTone.com

ANDREW HILL
Smoke Stack
Blue Note
***Remastered by Rudy Van Gelder, this reissue of one of Hill's earliest leader dates for Blue Note is a densely textured date for which the pianist wrote all the compositions and used two bassists, Richard Davis and Eddie Khan, along with the great drumming of Roy Haynes; Khan was mostly a fulcrum, releasing Davis to dialogue with Hill and to solo. It's demanding music, constantly nudging the boundary between form and freedom, not quite free, but so loosely exploratory in terms of time and what paths Hill takes through the material that it doesn't quite live up to the sense of anticipation created by its edgy adventurousness. And yet, over 40 years since it was recorded, it still sounds fresh and avant garde. Ray Comiskey