Latest releases reviewed

STEVE KUHN Trance ECM ***

This is the first time on CD for pianist Kuhn's mid-1970s ECM debut, made in the stellar company of Steve Swallow (electric bass), Jack DeJohnette (drums) and Sue Evans (percussion). A powerful if uneven statement, it's very much of its era, partly because of the dated sound of the electric piano that's occasionally used, and partly perhaps because its mix of the free and the formal has the feel of new things being tried out. But at its best (especially on an adventurous The Young Blade, impressionistic The Sandhouse, and ruminative Trance), it's notable for the remarkable drumming of DeJohnette and the intensity of the dialogue between him and the formidably equipped Kuhn, with Swallow - as always - the pulse at its core. www.musicconnection.org.uk

Ray Comiskey

BILLY CHILDS Lyric Lunacy ***

Composer and pianist Childs's venture into jazz/chamber music, a sometimes fraught world where each can dilute the other, uses a sextet (guitar, harp, soprano/alto/flute/clarinet doubling and piano-bass-drums) augmented by string and wind quartets where required. The result is an attractive album whose beguiling melodic contours live up to its name. It's also superbly executed throughout and graced with the great drumming of Brian Blade and Marvin "Smitty" Smith, and the huge asset of Scott Colley's bass. Perhaps significantly, however, the most striking tracks are those that hew more closely to one idiom or the other; a very Satie-like The Old Man Tells His Story has some of the finest ensemble writing on the album, while American Landscape, exuberantly driven by Smith, has brilliant guitar, piano and soprano solos. It's available only online at www.billychilds.com.

Ray Comiskey