Barron's quintet here with
Anne Drummond on alto and flute, drummer
Kim Thompson,
Kiyoshi Kitagawa on bass, and vibraphonist
Stefon Harris is a powerhouse of lyrical and percussive counterpoint and exotic voices. One listen to
Barron's
"Jasmine Flower," with its Eastern melody and exceptional interplay between the pianist and
Harris' vibes that is knotty but never jagged, is enough to convince. Elsewhere, as on
Harris'
"The Lost Ones," where
Barron's middle register ostinati are given free rein to punctuate the skeletal melody and warm texture of the tune's body, is so elegant it's moving. The lilting flute line played by
Drummond, just ahead of the impressionistic beat and highlighted by the vibes, makes this an amiable yet compelling listen. This is followed with a wonderfully light-touched read of
Bud Powell's
"Hallucinations." Barron's touch is breezy and effective; he gets to the complex lyric fragments in the center of the structure and trots them out for the band's interaction.
Harris' solo has just the right tautness to keep it grounded and pulsing. The reading of
Wayne Shorter's
"Footprints" extrapolates the Latin melody from the tune's heart and makes it a rhythmic construct with
Barron and
Harris winding around
Kitagawa in an easy but swirling pace to the top of the figure and then into the maelstrom of the solo exchanges. In sum, this is another fine date by a pianist who seems to restlessly climb another rung with every outing even though he has been at the top of his game for decades. ~ Thom Jurek
![Tenderly [Just a Memory]](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/0068944914722_p0_v1_s90x140.jpg "Tenderly [Just a Memory]")