The title of pianist George Colligan’s 28th release is an Obi-Wan Kenobi reference - “more powerful than you can possibly imagine” - but it might just as easily refer to the pianist’s ability to learn and grow stronger from his own sideman encounters.
Long-term associations with leaders such as drummer Jack DeJohnette and vocalist Cassandra Wilson, as well as his own omnivorous musical appetite, have made the 47-year-old pianist a robust and adaptable musician, and his response to his colleagues here – the hugely impressive rhythm team of bassist Linda May Han Oh and drummer Rudy Royston, with rising saxophonist Nicole Glover on several tracks – is assertive but never prescriptive, with one eye on the piano tradition of McCoy Tyner and Herbie Hancock, and the other on where the US mainstream is headed next.
