Joel Locher, Marian Petrescu, Alex Riel

Always curious and always looking for new challenges, Alex Riel has been an important innovator of modern drumming in Europe. He was among the very first to record a “free” solo on his debut album in 1965 and he was a founding member of the beat-group Savage Rose, while also playing with Bill Evans, Ben Webster, Dexter Gordon and being a member of Monica Zetterlund’s quartet. From the last 20 years we know him for his work with Enrico Pieranunzi, Kenny Werner, Mads Vinding and many others.

Ulf Meyer & Martin Wind, featuring Billy Test and Alex Riel - Time will Tell: expressive musical testimony of a supergroup. Some supergroups arise out of pure calculation - others out of sheer coincidence or happy coincidence. The latter proves the quartet around Ulf Meyer (guitar), Martin Wind (double bass), Alex Riel (drums) and Billy Test (piano/organ/Fender Rhodes). Their album "Time Will Tell" is a musical and mental self-reflection worth listening to, presented in nine tasteful compositions - from easygoing swing numbers to intense, emotional blues ballads.

If this session were to be described in just one word, that would be "Power." Hard-bop specialists Mads Vinding and Alex Riel have both recorded with Dexter Gordon and have each played powerful, yet straight-ahead jazz for over thirty years. Drummer Riel has worked with hard bop leaders such as Jackie McLean, Michael Brecker, Kenny Drew, and Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis. Bassist Vinding, similarly, has worked with Johnny Griffin, Ed Thigpen, the Ernie Wilkins big band, and Duke Jordan. The third member of the trio, pianist Enrico Pieranunzi, with nine releases as a leader, works, as do the others, in a hard bop-vein. It would seem quite unnecessary to mention credentials like this if the artists lived in New York City or recorded with a major U.S. label; but Vinding and Riel are from Copenhagen and Pieranunzi is from Italy. Hence, their reputation may not have preceded them.

This is the latest addtion to the highly regarded CD series, MARIAN MCPARTLAND'S PIANO JAZZ, which is take from Ms. McParland's highly successful and long-running NPR program. This album features stripped-down, live-in-the-studio performances of Steely Dan Classic "Josie," "Black Friday," and "Chain Lightning."

In March 1575, a party led by the Venetian diplomat Giacomo Soranzo set out on a mission to Constantinople. They sailed down the Istrian coast, along the length of present-day Croatia, and on to the Bay of Kotor. Much of the land they passed was the territory of the Serenissima – inhabited by both Italians and Slavs, and of strategic importance since it was exposed to constant Turkish threats from the Balkan hinterland.