Pat Metheny: Trio 99 00 (Warner Bros)
A return to straight-ahead jazz trio seems to have worked beautifully for Metheny, with the gifted guitarist clearly invigorated by his younger colleagues, bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Bill Stewart. On this delightful trio album they show the kind of responsiveness and openness to risk-taking that comes from a working group, developing ferocious drive and exuberance on up-tempo pieces like Get It, What Do You Want? and Lone Jack. With Metheny highly inventive, Grenadier rock-solid and Stewart reacting superbly to everything, they also bring discipline and imagination to some lovely slower material, including Giant Steps, The Sun In Montreal and some gorgeous acoustic guitar on We Had A Sister and the rustic, ruminative Travels.
Ray Comiskey
Jimmy Greene: Brand New World (RCA Victor)
HAILED by veteran hard boppers Horace Silver and Jackie McLean, tenor and soprano saxophonist Greene makes his debut on a neatly-crafted release. Using some excellent, like-minded young players in trumpeter Darren Barrett, pianist Aaron Goldberg, bassist Dwayne Burno and drummer Eric McPherson, and the experienced Steve Davis on trombone, he offers, essentially, a kind of updated bop. Everybody plays well; Greene is promising if, at 24, not yet fully formed, Barrett has the authentic snap and crackle of bop, and Goldberg is often brilliant. Broadly, however, the music seems too carefully framed and played within the group's capabilities; well as it's done, it has little feeling of boundaries being stretched or, Goldberg apart, an edgeof-the-seat sense of discovery to compensate.
Ray Comiskey