As Long as There's Music

The part-time nature of Denny Zeitlin's music career hasn't harmed his pianistic abilities one iota, as this trio date for the discerning Japanese market demonstrates. Beautifully recorded, with world-class support from Buster Williams (bass) and Al Foster (drums), the album is mostly set in the thoughtful, harmonically complex idiom now identified with Bill Evans but with outbreaks of swinging fervor. There are two original Zeitlin tunes — "There and Back," with a definite Evans flavor, and the more unpredictable wanderings of "Canyon." The rest of the tunes are Great American Songbook favorites, jazz standards (Zeitlin is particularly inventive and swinging on John Coltrane's modified blues "Cousin Mary"), and the traditional token bossa nova (A.C. Jobim's "Triste"). A conservative record, yet quite beautiful. ~ Richard S. Ginell, Rovi