“Quartets” (Ambient Records)

Does it seem to you that grace and elegance are coming back into style? Angry populists had their day, but there’s nothing like the feel of genuine quality to make life worth living.

Which brings us to lyrical pianist Leslie Pintchik, whose love for the arts includes a master’s degree in 17th-century English literature. As the mind follows the ear, we hear in their playing that intuitive appreciation for balanced structure and the strength of harmonic ideas.

This is quartet jazz for intimate settings. Working with her longtime piano trio friends Scott Hardy, bass, and Mark Dodge, drums, she adds percussionist Satoshi Takeishi on five tracks and then reedman Steve Wilson on four others. The difference in shading is subtle and rewarding.

As Pintchik explains it, Takeishi gives the group a fuller, “more orchestral” range of colors. He does fill in the natural spaces with rhythmic counterpoint, maintaining several beats through a single song. The effect is a shimmering quality, an aural seascape always changing yet always moving in the same direction.

Wilson adds the saxophone’s high end, playing alto and soprano with an urgency that would be slicing through smoke-filled nightclubs if people could still smoke in nightclubs. His solos bring an agitation that shifts the album from reflection to action.

In literary terms, he is the catalyst who makes things happen. Pintchik is the musician who understands.

PIANO JAZZ

grade: A

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 15th, 2007 at 12:01 am and is filed under Calendar. Tags for this post: Calendar-Music, Calendar-Music-Review, Chuck Graham, Music, Review. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.