The latest releases reviewed

BILL CARROTHERS     Home Row     Pirouet   *****

It's clear in this previously unissued piano trio album from 1992 that Carrothers was an original from early on. At only 28, even with players like Gary Peacock (bass) and Bill Stewart (drums), he shapes the intensely imaginative interaction. Carrothers's playing is distinctive, gripping and witty, somehow reconciling awareness with trust in the moment. Thus there's a complex, ebullient sense of discovery permeating My Heart Belongs to Daddy, Off Minorand When Will the Blues Leave, and an equally complex, almost cerebral, lyricism in Jesus' Last Ballad, Hope Songand Lost in the Stars. That Carrothers could stamp his personality on pieces as diverse as those by Ornette, Monk, Thielemans, Weill and Cole Porter (not to mention his own fine originals) is proof of the strength of a sensibility for which revelation, rather than revolution, remains the name of the game. www.pirouetrecords.com RAY COMISKEY

GIANLUIGI TROVESI ALL'OPERA Profumo di Violetta  ECM  ****

I have no great knowledge of Italian opera or the country's provincial banda (civic band) tradition, which Trovesi celebrates here. But the music is beguiling. The Filharmonica Mousiké, a superb wind and percussion ensemble, perform a beautifully orchestrated suite embracing operatic themes of myth, dance, love, mockery, jealousy, anger and tragedy, using excerpts ranging from Monteverdi to Puccini, with Trovesi's responses to them as improviser and composer. That conveys nothing of the impact of the soloists - Trovesi (clarinets/alto), Fabio Brignoli (flugelhorn/trumpet), Marco Remondini (cello/electronics) and Stefano Bertoli (percussion) - and their illuminating dialogue with the ensemble. It's no stretch to imagine this passionate, romantic and accessible music performed in the provincial piazza or teatro of a town like the one memorialised by Fellini in Amarcord- and enjoyed by the whole community. www.musicconnection.org.uk RAY COMISKEY

DEBORAH LATZ Lifeline   June Moon ***

A singer, a trio and standards sound like an old recipe. But Latz is the real thing. She swings, phrases well and any liberties taken are done with respect for the lyrics. Her support, moreover, is a working trio, with Daniela Schächter a swinging, two-handed pianist, and Bob Brown (bass) and Elisabeth Kaledjian completing an ideal rhythm section for this kind of jazz. And, on four tracks, Latz has an exceptionally sensitive guest in Joel Frahm (tenor), whose obbligato and solo work on Les Feuilles Mortes, Don't Explainand How Deep Is the Ocean, in particular, inspire Katz to give her best. Elsewhere she's especially assured on a well-thought-out, individual take on My Favorite Thingsand on poised interpretations of Waltz for Debby, The Sweetest Soundsand I Didn't Know What Time It Was. www.deborahlatz.com RAY COMISKEY