Pavane For

Pianist Steve Kuhn, accompanied by David Finck and Billy Drummond, explore classical works by a number of top composers from the 19th and 20th centuries on this Japanese release, though they are used as a launching pad for improvisation. Maurice Ravel's "Pavane for a Dead Princess" is recast as a soft samba, also incorporating a bit of an earlier standard that was derived from the French Impressionist's piece, "The Lamp Is Low." Chopin is obviously one of Kuhn's favorite classical composers, as three of his features, highlighted by a dreamy setting of "Nocturne in E Flat Major, Op. 9, No. 2." He brightens the tempo of Claude Debussy's "Reverie" while retaining its lyricism, while slowing Johannes Brahms' "Lullaby" to a crawl and demonstrating how a master jazz pianist utilizes space as an element of improvisation.

Gifted pianist Steve Kuhn has enjoyed a career revival since signing with Venus Records. Pavane For A Dead Princess - a daring jazz rendition of classical compositions - has become huge in Japan and is considered one of Kuhn's definitive works. Kuhn's soft and clever piano turns selections by Ravel, Chopin, Tchaikovsky and Faure into exciting jazz. The treatment is so effective that one might not realize at first that these were originally classical pieces.