Latest CD releases reviewed

CARLA BLEY/ANDY SHEPPARD/STEVE SWALLOW/BILLY DRUMMOND
The Lost Chords Watt
****

After the labours that produced the invigorating Looking for America big band album, composer/pianist Bley scaled down to the quartet which she led in Cork last year as part of a European tour; this live album was made at various unspecified places during that tour. While she would acknowledge her limitations as a pianist, Bley's quirky, occasionally Monk-like hand is all over the engaging pieces she wrote for the group, which sounds more energised and focused than it did - at least in memory - in Cork. Sheppard, on soprano and tenor, bassist Swallow and the stunning Drummond on drums find all sorts of rewarding moments in her wry, three-part exploration of Three Blind Mice, while the quartet reaches a collective peak on the languidly beautiful Tropical Depression and the haunting sequences of her Lost Chords trilogy. Ray Comiskey

GARY BURTON
Generations Concord
***

As is his wont, Burton spotlights another talented newcomer, 16-year-old guitarist/composer Julian Lage, on a sparkling album which, however unintentionally, shows how much even such a gifted musician as Lage has to do to reach Burton's class. Burton, in magnificent form and always playing with a compelling appreciation of the group dynamics, is so striking that the ear is constantly led to his work - and this despite the presence of longtime colleague (and former protegée), the marvellous pianist, Makoto Ozone, who with bassist James Genus and drummer Clarence Penn completes an elegantly pushing rhythm section. Lage, who studied with Jim Hall, is a hugely promising player who seems to be temperamentally attuned to the overall latin flavour that animates the album, in itself possibly reflective of Burton's interest in the music of the master of the tango, Astor Piazzola. Enjoyable. www.musiconnection@aol.com Ray Comiskey

MATT WILSON
Wake Up! Palmetto
***

One of the more adventurous musicians around, drummer Wilson reunites with his Arts and Crafts group - Larry Goldings (keyboards), Dennis Irwin (bass) and Terell Stafford (trumpet/flugelhorn) - for a session which catches them all in unbuttoned mood. Although not as arresting as their eponymous 2001 release, it's a relaxed, ebullient effort, taking in a range of material by composers as diverse as Jaki Byard, Charlie Haden, Tony Williams, Jobim and group members Wilson and Goldings. Stafford, once again, is in fine form and Goldings in anything but the comfort zone; Irwin, reliability personified, even plays clarinet on a fairground re-creation, Cuban Carnival Song, vocalist Curtis Stigers guests disappointingly on Williams's There Comes A Time, later reprised more rewardingly as a duet by Stafford and Goldings, and Wilson is, as ever, one of the best drummers around. www.palmetto-records.com Ray Comiskey