This week's jazz CDs reviewed

STEVE KUHN
Life's Backward Glances: Solo and Quartet ECM****
This set of three fine Kuhn 1970s albums includes Motility, an impressive quartet date with Steve Slagle (soprano/alto/flute), whose impressionism emphasises group performance more than solos. But the gems here are the solo piano Ecstasyand Playground, a quartet with singer Sheila Jordan. Nearly all the compositions on each CD are Kuhn's, reflecting his individuality as a writer, and in Jordan he has someone profoundly in tune with their diversity of mood; the rapport between the pianist and singer is palpable. On Ecstasythere is a sense of passionate questing, with quicksilver emotional turnarounds, virtuosically expressed, but rigorous. It is also, like the encounter with Jordan, singularly lovely and gripping. Given these albums' quality and their rarity ( Ecstasywas issued on CD only in Japan, and the original LPs are long out of print) this specially priced box set is an attractive buy. www.music connection.org.uk  RAY COMISKEY

LEE SHAW
Live in Graz ARC***
Shaw is a veteran pianist who has led a New York area trio for years. Influenced by Oscar Peterson, she has a fine, swinging, two-handed approach and two very compatible players in Jeff Siegel (drums) and Rich Syracuse (bass). The band is tight without being slick; there's an enjoyable looseness to what they do with a programme of Shaw's own originals, a standard and pieces by Ahmad Jamal and Billy Taylor. If Shaw sounds somewhat more comfortable in 4/4 than anything else, she retains an enviable
harmonic and melodic vocabulary and a buoyant sense of joy in her playing. An accompanying DVD,
despite a poor audio and video concert recording (the CD sound is excellent), has delightful interviews
with Shaw (about her long career) and her colleagues (about the metaphysics of trio interaction).
www.artistsrecordingcollective.info  RAY COMISKEY