River of Joy: Solo Portraits

Released simultaneously with her album Castles in the Air, River of Joy finds pianist and composer Claire Ritter working primarily in a solo vein, performing a program of mainly original pieces. They range rather drastically in style, though not as drastically in mood. "Song in a Canyon," which opens the album, is very sweet, maybe occasionally a bit too much so; "All in Time," which immediately follows it, draws on stride-piano technique and is heavily influenced in its melody by Thelonious Monk, but it is scarcely less gentle and contemplative in tone than "Song in a Canyon." The title track sounds somehow like a cross between Franz Schubert and Thomas A. Dorsey — and that's a compliment. "Wag Rag" is not a rag at all, but rather an almost arrhythmic and rather abstract composition that flirts occasionally with jauntiness without ever giving in to it. As for the non-original material, it includes two excellent takes of Monk's "Straight No Chaser," a slightly disjointed interpretation of "When I Fall in Love," and a moody deconstruction of "Sunny Side of the Street." Ritter is a pianist and composer of lively intelligence, unobtrusive virtuosity, and consummate taste, and this album is strongly recommended.