Uri Caine
is known for his work with
Dave Douglas
and also for his renegade reinterpretations of
Bach
,
Wagner
, and
Mahler
as well as the
Tin Pan Alley
songwriters. But here the fiery pianist lets loose in a trio setting, with the deadliest of rhythm sections: bassist
James Genus
and drummer
Ralph Peterson, Jr.
Whether playing fast (
"Loose Trade,"
"Digature of the Line,"
"Stain,"
"Fireball,"
"Bones Don't Cry"
), medium (
"Sweet Potato"
), or slow (
"Blue Wail"
),
Caine
and company imbue every tune with an extraordinary
blues
feeling and a fat
swing
groove. But this is not just another straight-ahead piano trio outing.
gives the form a shot in the arm with these sophisticated compositions, all of which contain a bevy of surprises.
Blue Wail
is on the whole an aggressive, burning album, although
mellows a bit with
"The Face of Space,"
an ingenious hall of metric mirrors, and
"Poem for Shulamit,"
a rubato piece that evokes a magnificent stillness.
Fats Waller
's
"Honeysuckle Rose,"
the one non-original of the set, appears as both the first and the last track, with
taking the tune apart in a solo setting. It's an inspired move: Why not frame a batch of modernist creations with a statement drawn from
jazz
piano's earliest days? ~ David R. Adler