JASON MORAN
Facing Left
Blue Note
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Must be something in the water down there in Houston. Pianist / composer Jason Moran is at least the third gifted-beyond-his-years young jazz musician to emerge from the home of the "Urban Hay Bale" (a cube of plexiglass stuffed with straw, if you're wondering) in the past few years. Drummers Susie Ibarra and Eric Harland are the other two that come to my mind. I hope there are more. After coming to New York to study with Andrew Hill, Muhal Richard Abrams, and Jaki Byard, Moran did more than hit the books and keep good company. Harland recommended Moran to saxophonist Greg Osby, who hired the young pianist and plugged him into Blue Note's posse of talented youngsters (e.g., tenor saxophonist Mark Shim and mallet guy Stefon Haris). Osby produced Moran's first CD (Soundtrack to Human Emotion) which I still have yet to hear, as well as Facing Left. Osby's presence isn't very pronounced. In fact, I get the sense that he just let Moran and his colleagues do what they do best. The best things about Facing Left are: 1) the spine tingling depth of communication between Moran, bassist Tarus Mateen and drummer Nasheet Waits, 2) the complete lack of the tried-and-true, 3) the fact that Moran answers to no-one but his own muse. This is an utterly distinctive piano trio, and Facing Left is very, very fresh modern jazz, played with an inspiring level of emotion, intuition and skill. If I hadn't already heard Myra Melford's latest trio CD (Dance Beyond the Color), I would be telling you that Facing Left is the best new piano trio CD I've heard since Satoko Fujii's Looking Out of the Window.

Moran makes no stylistic distinctions when choosing his material. A tender, but not too tender, take on Bjork's ballad, "Joga" (but why was this faded out?), rubs shoulders with a high-energy reading of "Wig Wise," the greatest Ellington composition that never became a standard (if you don't own Money Jungle yet, please go out and get yourself a copy) and the chuckling, chortling acoustic piano / Fender Rhodes exchanges of Moran's abstract funk: "Thief Without Loot." "Wig Wise" melts down into the acoustic stomp of "Yojimbo." Listening to this track I can picture the lone samurai making his way through the Japanese countryside. "Another One" starts out like a Sunday stroll, and quickly builds to a level of intensity I've only heard on a few non-free-jazz piano trio recordings (the ones Joanne Brackeen did with Jack DeJohnette and Eddie Gomez come to mind). Nasheet Waits is featured on "The Murder Of Don Fanucci" (from the Godfather Part 2 soundtrack), and his sense of drama and timing would certainly impress Coppola. Not to be outdone, Mateen works up a major sweat on Byard's "Twelve." I could go on and on, but if you've read this far, you get the picture. There's not a moment on this disk that I wasn't absolutely thrilled with.

Facing Left proves to me that Moran is not a "developing talent." Maybe I'm easy, but Moran just doesn't sound like Evans, Corea, Hancock, Cecil or any of the other giants. When he whips out the Rhodes (or the Hammond B-3, as on "Battle of the Cattle Acts"), he's not doing his fusion thing: Moran's approach is far too organic for that sort of linear thinking. Tutelage from iconoclasts and individualists like Byard, Abrams and Hill obviously helps, but you can't teach someone to think on their feet. If you enjoy modern jazz that willfully veers and strays, like a puppy on a leash, into all sorts of unexpected musical territory, Facing Left is one to grab.

Dave Wayne

Track Listing: 1. Later; 2. Thief Without Loot; 3. Joga; 4. Wig Wise; 5. Yojimbo; 6. Another One; 7. Lies are Sold; 8. Murder of Don Fanucci; 9. Twelve; 10. Three of the Same from Two Different; 11. Fragment of a Necklace; 12. Battle of the Cattle Acts; 13. Gangsterism on Wood

Personnel: Jason Moran, acoustic piano, Fender Rhodes, Hammond B-3; Tarus Mateen, bass; Nasheet Waits, drums