Wooden Tomasz Stańko Quintet

Schumann's Piano Quintet is one of the world's (and my) favorite pieces of chamber music. But the less-outgoing Piano Quartet eventually reveals its secrets, too, and it's another wonderful piece. These are fascinating performances. Menaham Pressler, on leave from the Beaux Arts Trio, blends his Old World charm with the New World energy of the Emerson Quartet.

A fantastic 5 th Album of the sensational french jazz band. Recorded at Rudy Van Gelder Studio (New Jersey, USA) , mixed by Jordan Kouby at Question de son (Paris) and mastered by Frank Merritt at The Carvery (London , UK). Hard Bop 2021 at his best!

The playing is strongly Romantic in character, emphasizing the violent contrasts and almost painful expressivity of the score; the ensemble can deliver feathery, near-inaudible pianissimos and powerful fortissimos with equal presence. Intonation is more or less flawless, and ensemble work is superb with all five parts often being equally audible with no loss of coordination. On each repeated listen I find new details springing out of the texture. There are occasional miscalculations—the cello pizzicati at the start of the adagio are a bit too prominent, though the reverberant acoustic (recorded in a church) could also be partly to blame—but for the most part everything is well judged.

A fine showcase for Chico Hamilton as a triple-threat artist: drummer extraordinaire ("Miss Movement," "Trinkets," etc.), vocalist ("She's Funny That Way," "The Best Things in Life Are Free," "Where or When"), and, of course, leader. His vocals are reminiscent of Nat King Cole, with subtleties all his own, and his drumming is just as impressive amid its own set of superlatives, many of which are shown off on the Hamilton originals "Happy Little Dance" and "Trinkets." The other members of the group, Wyatt Ruther (bass), Eric Dolphy (flute, reeds), Dennis Budimer (guitar), and Nathan Gershman (cello), get their own moments to shine, on "Newport News," "I Don't Know Why (I Just Do)," etc. Hamilton also brought in a full reed section for several numbers here, in acknowledgement of his own appreciation of the classic 1940s big-band sound…

Quite possibly the best album to feature the talents of Chico Hamilton and Eric Dolphy - a set recorded at a time when Dolphy was an up-and-coming player on the west coast scene! Although Chico Hamilton had recorded with unusual reed players before, Dolphy brings a depth of soul and spirit to this album that's missing from a lot of Chico's earlier work at the time - a style that still holds onto some of the measured qualities of the Pacific Jazz work by the Hamilton group, yet which also opens up into some of the darker corners that Dolphy would explore more on his own recordings of the 60s. The group also features some great guitar by Dennis Budimir and cello by Nathan Gershman - but the real standout aspects of the set come from Dolphy's work on flute, alto, and bass clarinet.

Brahms' only Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 34, had a turbulent history before finally taking its rightful place as one of the composer's most sublime chamber works. The quintet began its life as a string quintet; pressure coming from Brahms' friends eventually saw the string quintet's score destroyed in place of a sonata for two pianos. Though Brahms was fond of this version, further suggestions found hard at work on a third and final change in instrumentation, which resulted in the work we know today. At only 31 years of age, the sophistication found in this score is nothing short of profound. Brahms varies the voicing to achieve a nearly symphonic sound on one end and a tenderly intimate chamber feeling on the other.

The core of this group – John Surman, Alan Skidmore, Peter Lemer, Tony Reeves, and Jon Hiseman – recorded an LP titled Local Colour for ESP-Disk in 1966. The plan, conceived the year after the 50th anniversary of the recording session, was to reunite the original quintet, which had existed for six months back in '66, but unfortunately Nisar Ahmad (George) Khan, tenor saxophonist on the original album, came down with something and couldn't appear. Alan Skidmore (Lemer bandmate in SOS) was deputized and, as all familiar with his career would expect and you will hear, came through with flying local colors at the concert on February 20, 2018 at noted London jazz club Pizza Express. Four months later, Jon Hiseman passed away at age 73 after battling a brain tumor.