Latest releases reviewed

PAUL MOTIAN I Have The Room Above Her ECM *****

Drummer Paul Motian's first ECM CD as leader for nearly two decades is essentially a seductively ruminative affair in which, with long-standing colleagues Joe Lovano (tenor) and Bill Frisell (guitar), he engages in a three-way communion of great delicacy and beauty. All the material, except Kern's title track and Monk's Dreamland, is by the leader, whose unique, almost idiosyncratic drumming, is the perfect companion for Lovano's and Frisell's gorgeously laid-back playing. The prevailing mood is dream-like, lyrical and gently melancholic. It's full of ballad playing of the highest order; even when they venture "outside", Lovano and Frisell maintain a compelling responsiveness and sense of order, knit together by the inimitable Motian. www.musicconnection.org.uk

Ray Comiskey

ANTHONY BRAXTON Anthony Braxton's Charlie Parker Project 1993 hatOLOGY  ****

Two CDs recorded on successive days in 1993, one live in Zürich, the other in a Köln studio, catch Braxton's sextet exuberantly putting its freewheeling stamp on the bop canon of Parker, Gillespie and Davis. But this reissue is not bop as heritage music; saxophonist Braxton, along with Misha Mengelberg (piano) and Ari Brown (tenor/soprano) in particular, take it to the wilder shores of creative license to produce something exhilarating and fresh. No matter how much the envelope is stretched, however, the group retains an individual and collective awareness of its shape and context. The concert date is the more untidy; the two days in the studio that followed it further sharpened the group's focus.www.harmoniamundi.com

Ray Comiskey

IGNASI TERRAZA IT's Coming  TCB ***

Newcomer Terraza has more in common with the late Tete Montoliu than the fact that they're both Catalan, blind and play the piano; his technique, full touch and fluent invention also owe something to his compatriot. And his playing reveals other debts, to Red Garland, Phineas Newborn and, especially, Oscar Peterson and Peterson's inspiration, Art Tatum. Somehow he has forged them into a buoyant style in which his pleasure in performing is palpable. With similarly strong colleagues in Pierre Boussaguet (bass) and Gregory Hutchinson (drums), he romps with zest and invention through a programme of standards and originals, including a nicely reharmonised Yesterdays, a sparkling My Ideal and a lovely solo piano version of a Catalan folk tune, Rosor. www.musicconnection.org.uk

Ray Comiskey