*** Tommy Flanagan Trio
SEA CHANGES
(Evidence)
Pianist Tommy
Flanagan's latest marks the 40th anniversary of his first album as a leader by
reprising several of the tunes from that effort, along with a handful of
standards with ocean themes. Although he's undoubtedly been through these tunes
countless times, Flanagan never plays anything by rote, and this album is full
of the elegant surprises and modest beauty one comes to expect from perhaps the
greatest living jazz pianist. Flanagan never employs more notes than necessary,
and he avoids overusing left-hand chords to support right-hand lines. His
playing is marked by clarity and precision as well as emotional warmth and
maturity. "Eclypso" features chorus after chorus of shapely melody paced to
create rising and falling tensions. He takes "How Deep Is the Ocean?" at a
perfectly judged medium tempo, knitting together chords, blues inflections, and
bopish runs into a lively, varied solo. The delicate warmth and dark shadings
of Flanagan's solo on "Delarma," an original ballad, make for one of the
album's most intimate moments. Five minutes of Flanagan's unassuming virtuosity
says more than an hour of flashy gestures from a lesser artist.
-- Ed Hazell
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