A Waltz For Debby

If there were ever a pianist who never had to prove his jazz chops —especially in bop and post-bop territories — it is Giuseppe Emmanuele. His quintet that features the wondrously lyrical trumpet voice of Paolo Fresu and saxophonist Pietro Tonolo is an Italian powerhouse of the idiom and incorporates the post-impressionistic lyricism that trademarks all of Italy's finest jazz recordings. The set opens with "Mingus," an Emmanuele original that employs three of the late bassist and composer's harmonic ideas: that all major chorded works have to be supplanted with minor seventh counterpoints before improvisation takes place, that opening melodic lines on more than two instruments must be played consonantly, and finally that the leader's solo must begin in an opposition key and work its way back to the front. Consequently, this leaves a boatload of room for other soloists in the band and the whole proceeding swings like mad on a 12-bar blues. Likewise, on Bill Evans' "Waltz for Debbie," Emmanuele extrapolates on Evans' chromaticism, moving it as far off scale as possible in order to introduce another palette of subtle shapes and colors for the rest of the improvisers, without losing any of the melodic sensibility inherent in the tune's architecture. There are no weak moments in this eight-track set, only a dazzling array of shapes and textures employed by Emmanuele in his arrangements for a band of stellar players who are still looking for new ways of opening up the hard bop idiom to modern sonances.