JEFF WILLIAMS - Bloom
Whirlwind - WR4737
Jeff Williams - drums; Carmen Staaf - piano; Michael Formanek - bass
Jeff Williams has been a presence on both sides of the Atlantic for many years now; his output of high quality music continues unabated, showcasing new talent from the UK and the US in a variety of diverse and stimulating settings. Here he re-unites with bassist Michael Formanek - a relationship that’s been developed over decades, since the formation of Circadian Rhythms with Tony Malaby in 1997 - in a trio with the prodigious pianist Carmen Staaf, best known for her ‘Science Fair’ project with drummer Alison Millar and a host of other young NYC luminaries. Her own composition ‘Short Tune’ is a peppy, Monkish bopper which showcases her harmonic facility, rhythmic accuracy and fearsomely quick right hand; there’s a powerful statement from the mighty Formanek and a series of obligatory eights with the ever creative Williams but this is Staaf’s showcase and she rises to the occasion magnificently. The trio explore the territory at the hipper end of the NYC mainstream, as personified by pianists like George Colligan, Ethan Iverson, David Berkman or Gabriel Guerrero - a ‘tradition-plus’ approach that incorporates the jagged metric modulations of ‘Scrunge/Search Me’ as well as the Ellingtonia of the wryly titled ‘Ballad Of The Week’ and the reflective sixties-era Hancockisms of Buster Williams’ ‘Air Dancing’ - ‘Northwest’ has a kind of pastoral breeziness that recalls Keith Jarrett at his most melodic and accessible. The trio excel at this kind of robust, highly virtuosic playing, and there’s a sense of freedom and fun to the proceedings. There’s a nod to the freer end of things in the mediative textual explorations of “Chant’, but this eminently accomplished trio can find quite enough to occupy themselves within the parameters of swinging modern jazz and the results are consistently engaging.
Reviewed by Eddie Myer
Whirlwind - WR4737
Jeff Williams - drums; Carmen Staaf - piano; Michael Formanek - bass
Jeff Williams has been a presence on both sides of the Atlantic for many years now; his output of high quality music continues unabated, showcasing new talent from the UK and the US in a variety of diverse and stimulating settings. Here he re-unites with bassist Michael Formanek - a relationship that’s been developed over decades, since the formation of Circadian Rhythms with Tony Malaby in 1997 - in a trio with the prodigious pianist Carmen Staaf, best known for her ‘Science Fair’ project with drummer Alison Millar and a host of other young NYC luminaries. Her own composition ‘Short Tune’ is a peppy, Monkish bopper which showcases her harmonic facility, rhythmic accuracy and fearsomely quick right hand; there’s a powerful statement from the mighty Formanek and a series of obligatory eights with the ever creative Williams but this is Staaf’s showcase and she rises to the occasion magnificently. The trio explore the territory at the hipper end of the NYC mainstream, as personified by pianists like George Colligan, Ethan Iverson, David Berkman or Gabriel Guerrero - a ‘tradition-plus’ approach that incorporates the jagged metric modulations of ‘Scrunge/Search Me’ as well as the Ellingtonia of the wryly titled ‘Ballad Of The Week’ and the reflective sixties-era Hancockisms of Buster Williams’ ‘Air Dancing’ - ‘Northwest’ has a kind of pastoral breeziness that recalls Keith Jarrett at his most melodic and accessible. The trio excel at this kind of robust, highly virtuosic playing, and there’s a sense of freedom and fun to the proceedings. There’s a nod to the freer end of things in the mediative textual explorations of “Chant’, but this eminently accomplished trio can find quite enough to occupy themselves within the parameters of swinging modern jazz and the results are consistently engaging.
Reviewed by Eddie Myer
