Jazz music of the week reviewed by RAY COMISKEY

Marc Copland

Alone

Pirouet *****

The overall mood of this solo piano recital, apart from a lithe, dancing Blackboardand an agitated, almost fevered Night Whispers, both Copland originals, is reflective. But he sows the apparent tranquillity of many compelling performances here with disquieting dissonance, applied with an innate instinct for enriching their emotional freight. It's also true of the way he employs motifs; they can be simple reference points, like the repeated A in a reharmonised Soul Eyes,or the rhythmic idea that underpins Michael From Mountain(one of three Joni Mitchell pieces here). Less obvious is the absorbing I Should Care, but they all subtly complicate the emotional tensions running through these performances. Beyond the details, however, there remains an elusive, uniquely beautiful quality of spirit that is shared with his last solo album, the near-classic Time Within Time(2005). www.pirouetrecords.com

Gerald Clayton

Two-shade

Emarcy ****

Although he comes from a piano tradition that includes Mulgrew Miller, Oscar Peterson and Kenny Barron, with this leader debut the 25-year-old Clayton is already staking out his own space. As a composer he's adept at taking a basic idea and working it through enough permutations to provide sustenance for his fine trio with Joe Sanders (bass) and Justin Brown (drums). As a player he's as persuasive dealing with the baroque-tinged Sunny Day, the funkily down-home Boogablues or the shifts of One Two You, as he is taking on the only non-originals on the album – an intelligently manoeuvred All Of Youand a satisfyingly indirect sidle up to a solo Con Alma. And his Peace for the Momentis a textbook demonstration of swinging trio interaction and craftsmanship. Nothing subversive enough to alert the thought police – yet – but definitely one to watch. www.emarcy.com

Manfred Schoof

Resonance (2CDs)

ECM *****

First time on CD for this selection from the European free jazz pioneer's ECM/Japo albums of his superb late-1970s quintet with Michel Pilz (bass clarinet), Günter Lenz (bass), Ralf Hübner (drums) and, on keyboards, Jasper van't Hof or Rainer Brüninghaus. The band's approach to a repertoire of originals by Schoof, Hübner and van't Hof reflected a desire to combine freedom with structure, and the results have an enduring lyricism and melodic beauty. With a brilliantly flexible rhythm section, totally attuned to the demands placed on it, the contrast between Schoof's lyric trumpet and flugelhorn and Pilz's tart bass clarinet works. The coherence and beauty of such as Scales, Weep And Cryand Lonesome Defender, and the fluid changes of direction of Source and Criterium, show one of the great European bands at a peak. Retrospective, yes; retro, no. www.naxosdirect.ie