Craig Taborn is a pioneer for sure. He is a searching, inquisitive voice, immersed in the harmonic adventure and rhythmic density of contemporary improvised music, but the Minneapolis-born pianist is also a conduit, a bridge connecting the piano present with a tradition that embraces Thelonious Monk, Cecil Taylor and Keith Jarrett. His third ECM release is a subtle, intense set of original compositions played with controlled freedom by an excellent quartet that includes saxophonist Chris Speed, bassist Chris Lightcap and Bad Plus drummer Dave King. Eclectic and episodic, like a vaguely unsettling art movie, Daylight Ghosts glows with the heat of invention, but it's couched in language that Taborn's predecessors would have understood. propermusic.com