JAZZ

Latest releases reviewed

ENRICO PIERANUNZI
 Les Amants 
EGEA
*****

With this gorgeous CD Pieranunzi addresses seven of his own compositions, revisiting four of the pieces he wrote for his stunning Racconti Mediterranei release and expanding them from the piano/bass/clarinet format to include a string quartet. Bassist Marc Johnson returns and Gabriele Mirabassi is replaced by Rosario Giuliani, playing mostly soprano. With the pianist, Johnson and Giuliani like a marriage made in heaven, the results are utterly captivating. Pieranunzi uses piano, bass and saxophone, and the strings, with a marvellous appreciation of texture, contrast and how to blend the written with the improvised, at the same time always keeping the musical discourse on the move and focused; in a way it's analogous to the arts of the storyteller or the painter, except Pieranunzi does it with sound. Is it jazz? When it's as lovely as this, who cares? www.egearecords.com

JAY LEONHART 
Cool 
Sons Of Sound 
****

To the distinguished jazz pedigree of bass-piano-guitar groups can be added bassist Leonhart's trio with pianist Ted Rosenthal and guitarist Joe Cohn. It's a fluent, hand-in-glove working band that wears its individual and collective virtuosity with a light touch. Leonhart is best known for his own wryly funny songs and witty vocal delivery, but here the emphasis is mostly on instrumentals and standards, with two songs by him, plus originals by Nat Cole, Waller, Ellington and Al Cohn. The trio swings hard and the internal balance is impeccable; both Leonhart and Cohn are in fine form, but the star of the show, in a beguilingly tasty example of the genre, is Rosenthal, who somehow raises the bar every time he solos. One to savour. www.sonsofsound.com

MARK TURNER/JEFF BALLARD/LARRY GRENADIER 
Fly 
Savoy 
****

The tenor-bass-drums format also has a superior jazz lineage, but whereas tenors like Sonny Rollins and Joe Henderson dominated their groups, Fly take a different tack. Turner, on tenor and bass clarinet, is a much less assertive player and, with bassist Grenadier and drummer Ballard equal partners in the dialogue, the lead voice shifts between all three; at times it's effectively non-existent. What emerges is a music which, despite its apparent simplicity, is closely wrought, borne of intense trio interaction. Turner's understated playing casts him, at times, in a subordinate role, especially in relation to the marvellous Ballard and Grenadier's strong bass, yet his is amongst the most cliché-free tenors around. They may not be to everyone's taste, but this is undeniably a group with its own story to tell. www.savoyjazz.com