Bill Laurance – Live at Union Chapel review: intimacy and grandiosity in equal measures

Being a core member and co-founder of Grammy-winning groove collective Snarky Puppy has certainly afforded keyboardist Bill Laurance the sort of creative freedom of which other jazz musicians can only dream, but so far the London-born pianist has used his clout wisely.

Recorded live in a London church before an adoring hometown audience, his fourth solo release – two CDs and accompanying DVD – once again successfully blurs the line between piano trio intimacy and jazz-rock grandiosity.

Joining the pianist for a set of his own tunes are fellow pups, bassist Michael League and drummer Robert Searight, so the grooves are puppy-tight, over which Laurance scatters the sort of pianistic fairy dust that is inevitably more rationed when he's with the mother band.

[ groundupmusic.net ]