Clean Feed Records: CF173 
http://www.cleanfeed-records.com/disco2.asp?intID=319

Personnel
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* Peter Evans: trumpet
* Ricardo Gallo: piano (http://www.ricardogallo.com/)
* Tom Blancarte: double bass (http://www.tomblancarte.com/)
* Kevin Shea: drums (http://www.kevinshea.info/)

Review
~~~~~~
by Stef

Liner notes rarely describe the process used (and why should they?), yet on this
album it is almost programmatic : "In addition to being an interesting way to
connect improvisation with fixed materials the players are likely to already
have under their fingers, it is also great fun to see what elements of surprise
we can squeeze out of something that, on its surface, may seem very familiar".So
writes trumpeter Peter Evans in the liner notes of this incredibly jazzy yet
equally modern piece of music. The familiar material are harmonies and melody
from "All The Things You Are", "Lush Life" and "Duke Ellington's Sound Of Love",
to name but a few.

Evans is joined by Ricardo Gallo on piano, Tom Blancarte on bass and Kevin Shea
on drums. The music is incredibly complex. Themes change, tempos change, rhythms
change : and this several times within the same piece, and not at the same
moment, but sometimes in overlaying structures, demanding incredible skills (and
concentration!) from the musicians. The result is nice. Inventiveness abounds,
the music changes itself the whole time, like a kind of sonic caleidoscope: you
can't know what comes next, yet it follows logically and unpredictably from the
previous notes, all in the same frame and structural context. The creative
discipline and musicianship are stellar.

Yet in the end, it gives me a little bit the same feeling as the later albums by
the Empty Cage Quartet, or some of Dave Douglas' music: the musical skills
combined with intellectual play with structure create a more distant feel than
the expressive and soulful straight from the heart jazz that gets my
preference. It is musicians' music of a very high level.