Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Romain Collin, Press Enter

Some albums leave such a vivid impression on me that the review that follows practically writes itself. That feeling comes over me as I write today about pianist Romain Collin and his Press Enter (ACT 9583-2).

This is Romain's third album and it is a very memorable one. It is mostly a set of originals with his trio and some guests here and there. The trio is a lively entity thanks not only to Romain but his very accomplished trio-mates Luques Curtis (doublebass) and Kendrick Scott (drums).

They journey together across some very animated, lyrical melodic-harmonic-contemporary jazz-rock fare that is far from ordinary. It all has some of the lyricism of Jarrett in his early-mid period, without at all sounding derivative for this is Collin music through-and-through.

The compositions are stated loose-tight creatively (with some rubato stretching yet tightly moving forward) and the improvisations are often enough within the song structure architecture.

But the compositions are so strongly put together and memorable you do not find yourself clamoring for more blowing time. There is enough but the songs carry everything forward beautifully. And the improvisatory passages show plenty of pianistic fluidity.

So you are left with some really striking music. Can I leave it at that and suggest you listen? It is very worthwhile music and so I do not hesitate to recommend it to you.

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