Pianist and leader Chris Pattishall revisits Mary Lou Williams’ classic Zodiac Suite from 1945, but instead of playing it in its original piano trio format, he’s brought in a full band of Riley Mulherkar/tp, Ruben Fox/sax, Marty Jaffe/b, Jamison Ross/dr and programmer Rafiz Bhatia for a collection of clever and at times quirky themes.
A handful of the pieces sound quite Mahleresque, mixing some synth sounds and tenor sax on “Scorpio” and the drum laden “Capricorn”. Mulherkar’s trumpet is calm on the bluesy “Taurus” and the medieval brass choir on “Leo” follows Ross’ drum intro in a clever manner. Pattishall shows his touch on the soliloquy of “Sagittarius” while peppy in a trio format before the horns come in on “Gemini”. Like the original, all of the compositions have their own personality, and with the extra instruments, the moods change like the alignment of stars.