Sophie Agnel, John Edwards, Steve Noble, Meteo

I don't recall having heard pianist Sophie Agnel before her new trio release Meteo (Clean Feed 272), a live date. But apparently Sophie and the trio with John Edwards on contrabass and Steve Noble on drums have had others. This one gives us a long continuous improvisation squarely in avant-free territory.

We have here a very well integrated three-way effort with sensitive sonic sound coloring that is sometimes quite boisterous but more often on the less dense side--not sparse but pointilistically give-and-take, with as much in the way of sustained legato soundscaping as in the way of staccato hot-potato passing.

It's so successful a group thing that it's more a three-headed improvising beast than a matter of stars soloing, though what each is doing makes for a three-star constellation. Sophie gets a series of excellent sound-sculptured utterances via inside the piano jangles with added objects, plucks as well as conventional keyboard sounding, without resembling the freestyling of anybody else. And it turns out that John and Steve are doing just the right sort of complementary sound generating of their own to make the mix compelling.

So compelling free music is what you get. A very considerable 38 minutes' worth. Recommended!

Haney-Cyrille-Duval a Go Go

David Haney is a pianist of the purist sort. He plays freely, he plays imaginatively and he plays exactly what he wants. That to me is a "pure" sort of stance. On the Conspiracy A Go Go (CIMP 369) recording, he is surrounded by an ideal set of musicians for such an endeavor. Andrew Cyrille is one of the true pioneers and a most lucid example of the free drummer. He listens, he responds beautifully. He can play excellent time and excellent out-of-time drums. And he does here. Dominic Duval happens to be one of the major free bassists on this planet. A description of his style would assume he can be pinned down. He cannot. He varies what he does to accord with who is playing on the date and the nature of the music intended. He plays some wonderful solo spots on this one and makes a major contribution to the success of this trio effort. (My spellcheck tells me that I should substitute "sauces" in place of "success." That would leave us with "makes a major contribution to the SAUCES of this trio effort." Almost a good one!)

Then there is David Haney. Perhaps not a name everybody knows. But listen to him. He knows the value of varying density and dynamics; he has a sharply honed sense of what clusters and individual lines suit the moment and he comes through with them.

Anyone who likes the full interactive possibilities of the free piano trio ought to check this one out. It's a textbook lesson on what three people can do to keep the music happening. And it is consistently excellent in thought and execution.

Pandelis Karayorgis and Nate McBride Duo

If you don't know Pandelis Karayorgis and his pianism, you are missing out on something. He's been around a while, lives in Boston, and has his own take on the avant improv free piano. There are players of the piano who are free yet their playing comments implicitly on the bop and beyond tradition they extend; then there are players that break the thread and emerge into a world of "pure" improv. This rule of thumb doesn't completely hold true to every player across the board. But think of Paul Bley for the former and later Cecil Taylor for the latter. Connie Crothers can go in either camp, Don Pullen could too. And Pandelis on his Let It (Cadence Jazz Records), straddles the line, crossing in either direction as the muse warrants.

This CD came out a few years ago. It gives you a substantial sampling of what Mr. Karayorgis can do in duet with bassist Nate McBride, who puts in an excellent performance on these improvisations, as anybody who knows his work might expect.

Pandelis is is great form on this one (but then again I've never heard him sound badly). There is a Monk influence to his playing, among other things, and it comes out in his staccato-sfortzando attack on dissonant chords and hard hitting single lines, not to mention some direct Monk quotes and a version of "Criss Cross" here. Karayorgis has so internalized the influence though that it is the voice of Karayorgis that speaks to us, wholly, whatever he plays.

McBride and Karayorgis have the kind of two-minded unity in this series of duets that few such interactions manage to achieve. They are on the same wave-length and inspired to give their best.

Let It provides plenty of examples of why I find Karayorgis on my short list of the most interesting free pianists working today. That list would include the aforementioned Ms. Crothers, and. . . well, Matthew Shipp, Anthony Coleman, of course Cecil Taylor, and I am leaving out people but the point is the handful is small. Let It gives you a more naked Karayorgis, if you will, an exposed player in the act of creation. So that is probably an excellent place to start for his music. Find out more about the album at www.cadencebuilding.com. Click on Cadence Jazz Records when you get there.

Correction, A New Swedish Piano Trio

Those who respond to the intimacy and potential power of the freely gliding jazz piano trio have something new to experience, Correction. Their recently released CD Two Nights in April (Ayler) hooks you into the band live at two different clubs in Sweden, playing forcefully convincing music with real panache.

Correction is Sebastian Bergstrom on piano, Joacim Nyberg on acoustic bass, and Emil Astrand-Melin on drums. And just because you may not have heard of them does not mean you should take them for granted.

The trio presents 12 relatively short improvisations, which is refreshing. They cover free post-Cecil Taylor explorations, hard swinging outbop, introspective free ballads, whirling dervish motor music, and things somewhere in between all of those options.

It's an accomplished, dynamic group and Mr. Bergstrom is a definite new voice to be heard. The music has the vitality of good live music and the subtlety of formidable musicianship. Everybody wins on this one: the trio, the audiences at the clubs and you, the home listener.