Label: Clean Feed Records, 2024

Personnel - Simon Nabatov: piano; Ralph Alessi: trumpet; Sebastian Gille: tenor saxophone; David Helm: bass; Leif Berger: drums.

Russian-born, Cologne-based pianist and composer Simon Nabatov has been a constant presence in the European creative jazz scene, boasting a 30+-year career with fruitful collaborations and numerous recordings worth revisiting. On Lovely Music, his latest outing, we find him at the helm of his Cologne quartet - featuring saxophonist Sebastian Gille, bassist David Helm, and drummer Leif Berger - and relying on resourceful American trumpeter Ralph Alessi to enrich nine original compositions, both old and new.

Each of Nabatov’s records showcases his interesting and versatile compositional skills, and “Koscha’s Delight”, dedicated to his pet cat, dazzles out of the gate with a staccato-infused theme, smart counterpoint, and remarkable confidence from all players. Gilles and Alessi engage in a game of interjections over an oddly rhythmic accompaniment, but it’s the trumpeter who first demonstrates his advanced lyricism. The following track, “Nature Morte 8”, is bookended with intriguing arco bass interpolations, reserving the middle part for a smooth harmonic progression in five. Nabatov leads the group on a vamping climb to the summit before a peaceful conclusion.

Both “Rickety” and “Old Fashioned” are retrieved from the excellent quintet album Last Minute Theory (Clean Feed, 2019). The former stands out with plenty of call-and-response and a cyclical flow in seven, carrying a broad sense of freedom. Highly composed and structured, there are sections of exceptional beauty and others where our ears are taken to places of energy. In that sense, “Autumn Music” starts as a ballad, navigates bluesy avenues, and ends with stimulating exchanges between the horn players. Alessi and Gilles also interact successfully on the closer, “No Doubt”, taking pleasure in the sympathetic support of the rhythm section.

“Amour Fou” features adroit single lines over hefty chord voicings and cerebral textures, with Nabatov creating improvised moments suffused with melodic invention, while “Margarita” is a meter-shifting, immensely melodic piece inspired by Bulgakov’s novel The Master and Margarita, which also served as inspiration for Nabatov’s 2001 album of the same name (Leo Records).

Lovely Music adds a whole new dimension to Nabatov’s body of work as its music exceeds expectations on almost every turn.