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Sparkle Beings
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Sparkle Beings
Current price: $17.99
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Barnes and Noble
Sparkle Beings
Current price: $17.99
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Pianist
is known for her colorfully inventive, often free-leaning post-bop jazz, a style she showcases on her vibrant 2022 trio album
. While not her first trio album, it is the first to feature two veteran icons, bassist
and drummer
. Her creative association with both artists is extensive, going back to 2003 for
(who played on her debut), and to the '90s for
(whom she met at a
jazz workshop while she was a student). Since then, she has worked with
extensively in various formations. Here, she brings both players together, exploring works by some of her biggest piano influences as well as her own compositions. While
often plays songs by other composers in her live shows, she rarely records them. This adds to the sense of illumination on
, as if
is opening up a window on her development as an improviser. She takes on
's noir-ish fever dream "With (Exit)," diving into the song's sneaky melody as
and
twirl around her in woozy, bluesy reverie. A similarly spectral atmosphere permeates her spare deconstruction of Mexican pianist
's "Preludio a un Preludio." The pianist's own songs conjure an equally dreamlike quality, as on the title track, which starts with a rhythmic pattern from
that sounds like falling rain filmed in black-and-white before
enter, adding bird-like color to the scene. Even more evocative, "Phantasmic Friend" is a slow-moving ballad in which
's dusky chordal harmonies swirl around your head like smoke in a dark cafe.
Particularly compelling is her opening reading of
' "A Fungus Amungus," in which she and trio partners lunge back and forth in off-kilter harmony like a modern dance company. Later, on the closing track, she combines her song "Before Sleep" with
's "The Sleeping Lady and the Giant that Watches Over Her," a song culled from his 1972 album
. Both tracks wryly straddle the line between swinging, urbane bop and the boundary-less free jazz of artists like
, a balance
strikes throughout
. ~ Matt Collar