1. Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams
2. Passarim
3. Soft Winds
5. Le Tombeau de Couperin
5. My Song
6. You Stepped Out of a Dream
7. Israeli Waltz
8. Anthropology
9. Babushka
10. On the Street Where You Live
11. BQE
12. Valentine
Tamir Hendelman - Piano
Marco Panascia - Bass
Lewis Nash - Drums
On this website, I have already praised Tamir Hendelman's contributions to albums by various groups, but this is the first time I have heard him leading his own trio. The promise he showed on those previous releases is fulfilled completely here. Like Marian Petrescu,
whose album I reviewed recently,
Tamir is a fortyish immigrant to the USA (in his case, from Israel) with a fiendishly advanced technique at the piano. And, like Petrescu, his playing is frequently reminiscent of Oscar Peterson.
Tamir's trio is completed by the Italian bassist Marco Panascia and the American drummer Lewis Nash, and they blend sympathetically together. This is illustrated in the first track, Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams, where the trio achieves relaxed swing. Tamir's solo is virtuosic but spacious, while Marco's bass solo and Lewis's drum fours are architectural.
One of this album's delights is the eclecticism of the material.
Many of the tunes were composed by pianists - from Ravel's Le Tombeau
de Couperin to Makoto Ozone's BQE, as well as two originals
by Tamir himself. Jobim's Passarim is approached subtly but
with plenty of forward impetus, as is Soft Winds, where the
bassist bends a lot of notes. The latter piece is an example of the
way that this trio stretches tunes beyond their normal boundaries.
Tamir plays Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin (just the first movement - the Prelude) with delicacy, using the original as a jumping-off point for a free but disciplined improvisation. This is one of the CD's highspots, as it shows how this trio can take a theme and develop it with latitude but not anarchy: orderly freedom. Their imaginative treatment of a classic piece reminds me of British pianist David Rees-Williams, who does much the same thing.
Keith Jarrett's My Song is given an appropriately lyrical reading. You Stepped Out of a Dream is introduced with a slow enigmatic Garneresque prelude but soon picks up momentum and swings along smoothly. Israeli Waltz is an original by Hendelman and it has the feeling of a folk tune.
The unexpected side of this trio appears again in Anthropology, a bebop anthem which is dislocated into something novel. Tamir turns it into a new melody in the course of his solo. Babushka is another Hendelman original (not the Kate Bush song!) - gentle and elegant. Tamir again provides an interesting introduction to On the Street Where You Live, which wanders along in leisurely fashion.
Things heat up for BQE, which groves along rapidly and reaches climax with an amazing battle between piano and drums. A very varied and satisfying programme concludes with Fred Hirsch's Valentine, a beautifully buoyant melody.
Tony Augarde
CD Reviews
Resonance RCD 1017
