Music and Recording Reviews

Michel Petrucciani Trio: Jazz Club Montmartre - CPH 1988
Petrucciani, piano; Gary Peacock, bass; Roy Haynes, drums
Storyville 1038541 (CD; available as LP). 1988/2025. Christian Brorsen, prod.; Ole Matthiessen, Lars Palsig, engs.
Performance ****½
Sonics ***½

If you saw Michel Petrucciani live, you came away changed. To witness this tiny, severely disabled person (who had to be carried to the piano bench) unleashing torrents of brilliant piano extravagance and grinning with joy was to believe anew in the invincibility of the human spirit. Osteogenesis imperfecta, a rare bone disease, stunted his growth and shortened his life. He died at 36 in 1999. While he lived, there was no one remotely like him.

There have been many posthumous releases of his music. This new, two-CD set of previously unissued material is among the most valuable. On July 3, 1988, at the Montmartre in Copenhagen, Petrucciani played a rare gig with bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Roy Haynes. They were the rhythm section of his life. It was a wild night.

There are six originals and six standards. The originals all sound awash in adrenalin. Even the moody, modal "13th," one of Petrucciani's most alluring melodies, powers relentlessly forward. "She Did It Again" has him flying high, in rocketing runs. Even Roy Haynes has to hurry to keep up.

As for the standards, most start as ballads but eventually get engulfed in the evening's prevailing exuberance. "My Funny Valentine," that most wistful of songs, like almost every song here, has a wind at its back. As it accelerates, Petrucciani keeps returning to the theme like a mantra. "Autumn Leaves" and "Someday My Prince Will Come" do not even try to be ballads. "In a Sentimental Mood" is a thoughtful, beautiful exception. Petrucciani barely touches Ellington's melody, in single notes like gentle caresses. Peacock plays brooding counterlines. Haynes, on brushes, stirs up light currents of energy.—Thomas Conrad

Fred Hersch Trio: The Surrounding Green
Hersch, piano; Drew Gress, double bass; Joey Baron, drums
ECM 2836 (LP). Manfred Eicher, prod.; Stefano Amerio, eng.
Performance ****½
Sonics *****

Pianist Fred Hersch has woven a long and varied career as a player and composer that now counts him among the greatest acoustic jazz pianists of current times. Influenced in various ways by Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson, and Ahmad Jamal and having taught Brad Mehldau and Ethan Iverson, his dues have been amply paid.

A big part of what makes the album essential lies with the old-hands rhythm section of bassist Drew Gress and drummer Joey Baron. The telepathic connection among the trio members is most obvious and impressive in Charlie Haden/Abbey Lincoln's "First Song." Hersch's irrepressibility and interpretative verve makes even a well-worn (timeless) melody like "Embraceable You" almost a new experience; "playful" describes nimble runs that refashion a tune that would seem to have run out of possibilities. Baron sets a rhythm, then Hersch enters obliquely, scampering up the keyboard, setting the mood, eventually weaving the familiar melody.

Hersch has recorded for labels large and small since 1984. The Surrounding Green is the third and most rewarding album he's made for the storied ECM label. Recorded in the Auditorio Stelio Moto in Lugano, it almost goes without saying that this Manfred Eicher–produced session is yet another ECM example of matchless sound. Reversing the polarity of Branford Marsalis's recent Belonging, on which he recreated Keith Jarrett's composing and playing, Hersch's take on Ornette Coleman's "Law Years" captures some of Coleman's agile ways. The strikingly beautiful title track is at the heart of this collection. Sweeping and melodic, it has an enchanting figure at its heart that Hersch eventually works his way back to several times. In between, he improvises, adding to the story of one of his finest original compositions.—Robert Baird

Francesco Cafiso: From Then Till When
Cafiso, alto saxophone; Sullivan Fortner, piano; Philip Norris, bass; Willie Jones III, drums
Venus VHGD-10019 (SACD hybrid). 2025. Tetsuo Hara, prod.; Riccardo Piparo, eng.
Performance ****
Sonics ***½

Francesco Cafiso of Sicily is one of the most talented living jazz musicians who is not world famous. He began as an alto saxophone prodigy, making his recording debut at 12 and touring Europe with Wynton Marsalis at 14. He is not a household name because he has never broken out of the European scene, and because the American scene, which determines household names, is ethnocentric.

When he was a kid, he was praised for his outrageous chops but often blamed for playing bebop. Now 36, he has evolved into a sophisticated composer, a fearless free improviser, and a designer of ambitious projects. Two of his albums included the London Symphony Orchestra.

His new recording of nine standards is a return to his origins, probably temporary. Now, when Cafiso plays Charlie Parker antiquities like "Ornithology" (at warp speed) and "Cheryl," he still nails them, but then he launches improvisations that are complete recompositions on the fly. He adds a wild introductory cadenza to "What Is This Thing Called Love?," then smokes it. On classic ballads like "The Very Thought of You" and "Prelude to a Kiss," the mature Cafiso can just play the melody and turn the songs into deep personal testaments. The virtuosity of "Body and Soul" (a rite de passage for saxophone players) sounds serenely definitive. It is fun to hear him celebrate familiar tunes like "Corcovado" and light them up.

The comping of pianist Sullivan Fortner (who is becoming world famous) is highly creative without being intrusive, and his solos start fresh with every song.

This Japanese import is a hybrid SACD. The sound of the CD layer is just okay. The SACD layer won't play on either of this reviewer's expensive, older Sony SACD players.—Thomas Conrad

John Zorn/Dave Lombardo: Memories, Dreams, and Reflections
John Zorn (alto saxophone), Dave Lombardo (drums)
Tzadik TZ 9324 (CD). 2025. John Zorn, Kazunori Sugiyama, prods.; James Dellacoma, Scott Hull, engs.
Performance *****
Sonics ****

John and Dave are the third and fifth most common men's names in America over the past century. But add the last names Zorn and Lombardo, and common is no longer the right word. Hearing them puts one in mind of hurricanes; in fact, one of the titles herein is "Hail and Thunder." It is here that the principals recall the format's template most directly: John Coltrane and Rashied Ali's Interstellar Space.

Zorn and Lombardo have worked together before in larger electric settings, but Memories, Dreams, and Reflections is their first meeting as an all-improvised acoustic duo. MD&R is on the short side for a jazz record but 10 minutes longer than a certain legendary 1986 thrash-metal album that Lombardo took part in (okay, it's Slayer's Reign in Blood).

The short tracks—opener "Sacred Beasts," "Scimitar," and "Santeria"—are what you might expect: belt-sander saxophone over hydraulic-press double bass and nail-gun snare, the last adding a modified blast beat to evoke an oompah band during an accidental Luftwaffe strike.

The short pieces are a hoot, but the longer ones are the surprises. From Lombardo, one does not expect crystalline cymbal tapping a la Paul Motian; at times Zorn sounds like a salted-caramel Johnny Hodges. Lombardo hasn't explored the nuances of his kit so quietly since the short-lived acoustic iteration of his Philm trio, inspiring Zorn to apply his extended techniques with subtlety.

All this aligns in the closer "Tractatus," the longest track in this fencing match set to music. Zorn and Lombardo feint, then attack with flurries of lunges and ripostes, followed by silent retreat. Each round sounds completely different than what came before: swinging or martial or photosynthetic. After nearly 10 minutes, they bow to each other respectfully.—Andrey Henkin

Joe Farnsworth: The Big Room
Farnsworth, drums; five others
Smoke Sessions SSR-2502 (CD; available as LP). 2025. Paul Stache, Damon Smith, prods.; Stache, Richard Bernard, engs.
Performance ****
Sonics ****

Joe Farnsworth is one of the great working-class sidemen in jazz. In 2020, he did something unexpected: He began putting out albums under his own name. The Big Room is the fourth. All are on Smoke Sessions.

Farnsworth knows who the badasses are. For his first three albums he recruited Wynton Marsalis, Kenny Barron, and Kurt Rosenwinkel. The Big Room features hot young prospects like alto saxophonist Sarah Hanahan and pianist Emmet Cohen and established heavy hitters like vibraphonist Joel Ross and trumpeter Jeremy Pelt. The new album opens with Hanahan's "Continuance." It hits you like a Mack truck and then runs you over. Hanahan's solo is wildly exciting. She is the most talented alto saxophonist to enter jazz since Immanuel Wilkins (who was on Farnsworth's third Smoke Sessions record). But just as you assume that The Big Room is going to be maniacal, you hear the second track, an ethereal ballad by Ross, "What Am I Waiting For?" Everyone in the band, even Hanahan, turns inward if not exactly tender.

Pelt's "All Said and Done" is a snaky blues. Farnsworth's lurching, start-and-stop title track features an uncommon duo: vibes and drums. There is even one standard ballad, "I Fall in Love Too Easily," upon which Pelt lavishes shameless romanticism.

The Big Room is an impressive display of improvisational firepower. Given generous solo space, Hanahan and Cohen justify the buzz about them, and Ross and Pelt validate their high reputations. But there is never any doubt whose record this is. The engine that powers this train is Joe Farnsworth. His drums are further forward in the mix than usual, but you are never unaware of them. He is relentless, yet his aggression is always targeted. He commands his own band, a working-class sideman no more.—Thomas Conrad

David Murray: Birdly Serenade
David Murray, tenor saxophone, bass clarinet; five others
Impulse! 00602475915911 (reviewed as CD). Randall Poster, Stewart Lerman, prods.; Maureen Sickler, Stewart Lerman, Greg Calbi, engs.
Performance ***
Sonics ****

Although they sound nothing alike, David Murray and John Coltrane are both in the brotherhood of strong-toned, strong-willed tenor players who have made the instrument the first most think of when they hear the word "jazz." So it is nifty that on the 60th anniversary of Coltrane's seminal album Ascension, Murray makes his debut on Coltrane's longtime label, with an album made on Murray's first visit to Rudy Van Gelder's studio, where Ascension and so many other Coltrane classics were recorded.

Birdly Serenade is an initiative of The Birdsong Project, which seeks "to create a collection of new pieces of music built around birdsong" as a means of building awareness of natural and manmade threats to avian populations. It's mostly a quartet date. Two tunes add vocals, and the closing piece has a poetry recitation by Murray's wife, Francesca Cinelli.

Murray's eight compositions do not convey birdsong as overtly as certain other works, by Steve Lacy and Evan Parker, though his sound can on occasion emulate a grackle (on tenor) or heron (on bass clarinet). Those who prefer Murray's more strident work can skip to the two tracks in the middle, "Black Bird's Gonna Lite Up The Night" and "Capistrano Swallow."

Animal sounds aside, this is a solid program of modern jazz. Most of the pieces have an appealing lope and tasteful accompaniment from the other three instrumentalists. Ekep Nkwelle's vocals cohere surprisingly well with those of the rest of the group.

Murray's career trajectory has resembled that of one of Coltrane's best known protégés, Archie Shepp. Like Shepp, Murray has mellowed some, but when he lets the bird out of the cage, so to speak, few do it better.—Andrey Henkin