Ran Blake

When Mal Waldron died in 2002, he was known to most jazz fans as Billie Holiday's final accompanist, and the composer of the standards "Soul Eyes," "Left Alone," and "Straight Ahead," the latter with Abbey Lincoln. His most significant leader date was 1961's The Quest, with Eric Dolphy and Booker Ervin on Prestige, where he served as house pianist. After suffering a total breakdown following a near-fatal heroin overdose in 1963, he was forced to relearn the piano. He left for Europe in early 1966, and his "second life" began. Waldron's many solo recordings, beginning with 1966's All Alone, are tantamount to the creation of a different jazz language. Its traits were angular, quizzical repetitive left-hand vamps and chords, underscored and appended by inquisitive harmonic inquiries on the right, drawn chiefly from the blues but also the jazz tradition and classical music from Chopin to Schoenberg…

"If There Are Mountains" is the first album by Dave Douglas and Elan Mehler as co-leaders, setting poetry and specifically haiku within the context of improvising music.

Alon Nechushtan was born in Rishon le Zion (near Tel Aviv) in 1974. He already learned to play the piano when he was six years old, and he began to compose for chamber music ensembles when he was 10. Private studies under Slava Ganelin as well as listening to the current music of his youth from Genesis to Pink Floyd stirred his awaking interest for jazz pianists – and of course composition studies from Debussy to Shostakovich. He also played in jazz combos during his classical composition studies in Jerusalem. After he received his Master's degree, he moved to the USA for good in 2003, first to Boston (on the advice of Between the Lines artist Yitzhak Yedid) where he continued his studies under Ran Blake, Paul Bley, Fred Hersch and others. Bob Brookmeyer was also one of his mentors, and he conducted numerous premiers of Nechushtan's compositions. He moved to New York in 2003, and his first recordings were soon released, among others on John Zorn's label Tzadik. Since then he has worked with many musicians such as Marty Ehrlich, Frank London, Ned Rothenberg, Eliott Sharp, Mark Dresser and many others.

This Mobile Fidelity CD draws its music from two solo piano albums released by the Melodiya label featuring the Russian pianist Leonid Chizhik. Chizhik certainly displays his versatility throughout the performances with the playful "Spontaneous Improvisation" shifting from stride to classical music, from a waltz to hints of Oscar Peterson. The soulful "Mobious Strip" is not that far from Keith Jarrett, "Dedication" is an abstract tribute to Chick Corea and "Composition on the Theme 'Every Day We Say Goodbye'" evolves from the starkness of Ran Blake to the soulful Ray Bryant and eventually classical music…