(ACT)
The 72-year-old German pianist Joachim Kühn – a schooled virtuoso, and a serial genre-bender of jazz, improv, rock and contemporary-classical music since the 60s – joins partners three decades younger in bassist Chris Jennings and drummer Eric Schaefer, mixing older piano-trio methods and their more percussive and rhythm-rooted 21st-century descendants. Kühn’s ability has always allowed him to roam stylistically without losing his singular character, and he has a harmonic ear that made him one of the few pianists to endear himself to Ornette Coleman. A tender account of the Coleman-composed title track precedes the thudding rock vamp of the Doors’ The End, but Kühn soon pulls the harmony awry. He sways warmly on the reggae-dub track Sleep On It, touches dreamily on Summertime, prods at the Doors’ Riders on the Storm over Schaefer’s strange, solemnly rocking beat, and cherishes Krzysztof Komeda’s Sleep Safe and Warm. There are four fine originals, and the closing uptempo sprint on Gil Evans’ Blues for Pablo caps a typically classy blend of the edgy and the inviting.
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