Customer Reviews

A Quiet Gem - By: Danny C, 28 Jan 2001
What a delight this CD is. It doesn't look that much - a quintet playing some standards, traditional tunes & some originals, but it has a freshness that hits you from the first track. This has the feeling of a session completely improvised. Perhaps it was - musicians of this caliber would be easily capable of creating great music off-the-cuff. Lloyd is accompanied by the superlative Brad Mehldau on piano, guitar & drums veterans John Abercrombie & Billy Higgins & Mehldau trio member Larry Grenadier on bass. Some of the highlights include the close recording picking up Higgins's grunts of delight as he accompanies his colleagues, a rare reading of Cecil McBee's 'Song of Her', & a version of Strayhorn's 'Lotus Blossom' that will leave you speechless with appreciation that this album was made.

No review of this CD would be complete without some enthusing over Brad's piano playing. Anyone who has enjoyed his music before will notice something new here - contributions which are playful, ruminative, humorous & astonishingly mature. To hear his introduction & solo on Georgia is to listen to a great communicatorin the process of telling a story. He is the real thing. And if you're willing to REALLY listen, you'll find he has so much to say. In short, the most simplistic of tools have created a work of uncommon depth.