David Kikoski - The Maze - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

This new trio, featuring pianist David Kikoski with the great Russian bassist Boris Kozlov and the legendary drummer Jeff InchTainInch Watts, presents a program of all Kikoski originals executed in the solo, duet, and trio . It's a beautiful album showing US the different sides of a great jazz pianist.

Here, on his sixth Criss Cross , pianist David Kikoski triologues with killer bass/drum team Larry Grenadier and Bill Stewart in a lyrical evocation of his introspective side on a program of six originals and two meaty jazz originals. Interplay, close listening and unending flow abide throughout the proceedings.

Pianist David Kikoski, who's partnered so ably on past Criss Cross albums with horn men like Alex Sipiagin, Seamus Blake, Conrad Herwig and Wycliffe Gordon, is perhaps best known for a series of compelling trio albums he's recorded for the tag over the past decade. Now along comes Almost Standards, on which he mixes it up with bassist Eric Revis (Betty Carter, Louis Hayes, Billy Harper and a bunch of Marsalis family members), and much-in-demand drummer Jeff InchTainInch Watts (Branford Marsalis), and an invigorating presence on two earlier Kikoski CDs. The new album's a mix of material serving as takeoff points this time out harmonically intriguing tunes that are already standards or probably ought to be.