Live at Jazz Standard

This is the kind of series that could last forever pianist Dena DeRose seems to have an endless supply of well- and little-known tunes from the collected songbooks and both the music and performances are timeless. The second set from the same evening that produced Volume One (MAXJAZZ, 2007), this has the same in-the-moment sense of place and, what sounds like a contradiction in terms, a recorded spontaneity.

Dena DeRose continues to dazzle in the simplest ways—she's a gifted and accomplished pianist, vocalist, composer and arranger but there's not a speck of self-importance or pretension as she joyously makes her way through new and old tunes. Her voice has the timbre and range of an Anita O'Day but there's a fresh, clear-headed quality here that speaks of self-confidence. Bassist Martin Wind and drummer Matt Wilson play in the trio of pianist Bill Mays, and bring that same level of sterling artistry to this date.

Masabumi Kikuchi & Masayuki Takayanagi - Live at Jazz Inn Lovely 1990 (2020) {NoBusiness NBCD135}
FLAC (tracks) - 16bit/44.1kHz - Official Digital Download -> 366 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 188 Mb
Full Artwork (jpg+pdf) -> 18 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1990, 2020 NoBusiness Records | NBCD 135
Jazz / Post Bop / Avant-Garde Jazz / Piano / Guitar

This live date from the titular Nagoya venue reveals the mellow side of Japanese free jazz. That could seem unlikely when considering the lead name, guitarist Masayuki Takayanagi, a maverick follower of Lennie Tristano who later turned to total freak-outs and noise, partnering with the likes of outsider saxophonist Kaoru Abe. Recorded nine months before his death 30 years ago this month, the concert finds him in the company of regular collaborator bassist Nobuyoshi Ino, plus celebrated pianist Masabumi Kikuchi, who died in 2015, sitting in during a trip home from his long sojourn in the U.S. Kikuchi, who worked with Miles Davis, Gil Evans, Dave Liebman and Joe Henderson, as well as a cooperative trio with Gary Peacock and Paul Motian, exerts a pull towards the tradition.

“There is no hurry to this music, but there is great depth,” observed London Jazz News about Danish guitarist Jakob Bro’s trio with two kindred-spirit Americans: bassist Thomas Morgan and drummer Joey Baron. This poetically attuned group follows its ECM studio album of 2016, Streams – which The New York Times lauded as “ravishing” – with what Bro calls “a dream come true,” an album recorded live in New York City, over two nights at the Jazz Standard. Bay of Rainbows rolls on waves of contemplative emotion as the three musicians explore five pieces from the guitarist’s catalog, with the gorgeous “Copenhagen” a favorite reprised from Gefion, Bro’s 2015 ECM release. Others – “Evening Song,” “Red Hook” and the volatile “Dug” – are recast intimately and elastically for trio after having been initially documented by larger ensembles. Bookending Bay of Rainbows are two versions of the richly melodic “Mild,” the abstracted second rendering illustrative of Bro and company’s ability to push and pull the music into mesmerizing new shapes, onstage and in the moment.