Label: ECM Records, 2021
Personnel - Craig Taborn: piano.
Extremely skilled in the way he explores his instrument, the modern creative pianist Craig Taborn involves us in a drape of sounds and textures that range from literate to empowering and from rigorous to freewheeling.
Fully improvised and recorded live, his second ECM solo piano effort, Shadow Plays, starts with the 17-minute “Bird Templars”, where an ostinato-driven flux coalesces with deliberate bass notes, implying, by turns, electronic music build-ups, modern classical streams and pop music progressions. Avoiding to clutter the music by carefully weighing every element, Taborn remains wedded to music in all its forms, exploring calm waves and juxtaposed rhythms with the same dedicated passion.
“Conspiracy of Things” evolves expeditiously, presenting a different kind of swing that only visionary pianists can achieve. In “A Code With Spells”, he lets the power of the harmony shine through, exploring several patterns with odd meter, while on “Shadow Play”, the epic tones at the very beginning twist into heavy, maniac dollops of fierce energy before forming an amazing map of sounds that engulf dancing folk lines, asymmetric groove and repetition of ideas.
If the sonic games of “Discordia Concors” and “Concordia Discors” can be tricky to follow in their expansions, contractions, convergences and divergences, then the concluding “Now in Hope” wraps up every tension, whether by waltzing with a delicate melody or flowing rubato with amiable temper. It sounds very jazzy in both cases.
This recording illustrates what Taborn is capable of when his extravagant imagination comes alive. The more you revisit it, the more you take pleasure from what’s being offered.
B+
Favorite Tracks:
03 - Conspiracy of Things ► 06 - Shadow Play ► 07 - Now in Hope