Myra Melford's Fire & Water Quintet - Sure Grand Out - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

We are thrilled to our first collaboration with visionary pianist and composer Myra Melford - a mesmerizing debut album from the new trio featuring bassist Michael Formanek and drummer and vibraphonist Ches Smith. Throughout her career, Melford has incorporated elements from other media into her compositions - not only from the visual arts, but also from literature, poetry and architecture. This trio is the latest installment in Melford's ongoing body of work inspired by the art of American post-abstract expressionist painter Cy Twombly. Myra Melford's Splash mirrors the energy and movement captured in Twombly's paintings, a physicality that drives Melford's exploratory music and multi-layered compositions. InchFormanek and Smith are alert listeners and adept shape-shifters, as they've proven time and time again. Together with Melford, unpacking this music, they're able to evoke the gestural dynamism and surging volatility that gives Twombly's work so much of it's power. Their expressive range of timbres - as Formanek plays arco, and Smith pivots to vibraphone - creates chamberlike options for Melford as a composer and improviserInch, writes Nate Chinen in the liner notes. The result is music of enchanting beauty, oscillating between filigree sound painting and abstract reflection.

Still on the shy side of 30, Ulysses Owens Jr.. has garnered an international reputation as drummer of choice for Christian McBride, Nicholas Payton, and Kurt Elling, three very different personalities who are very particular in what they want to hear from the kit. On his Criss Cross leader debut, Owens Jr.. convenes McBride and Payton, as well as pianist Christian Sands (even more visible for his work in McBride's year-old-trio), rising star alto saxophonist Jaleel Shaw (Roy Haynes' main sax voice for the last five years), and trombonist Mike Dease. The leader finds fresh approaches to various flavors of the swing timeline - Art Blakey and the refraction's of Buhaina established by Mulgrew Miller and Bobby Watson (each a one-time employer); Tony Williams' two phases with the Miles Davis Quintet; Ed Thigpen's crispness with the Oscar Peterson Trio - within a 21st century context.

Tenor saxman's first date as a leader, w. quintet, Kurt Rosenwinkel-gtr, Brad Mehldau-pno, Jorge Rossy-dms, Seamus Blake-ts & Terence Dean-ts, original tunes +.