****RINGER OF THE WEEK****NOCTURNES…Enrico Rava & Fred Hersch: The Song Is You

The Chopinesque piano of Fred Hersch is the perfect dance partner for the mellifluously fluffy horn of Enrico Rava on this collection of mostly standards. Relaxed, reflective and made for a noir alley, the songs mix lyricism with bluesy improvisation like conversant old time friends. There’s actually a whimsical free thinking “Improvisation” that still, with its dots and dashes, is filled with melody. Hersch also goes it alone on an elliptical take of “’Round Midnight”, while the other Monk tune, “Misterioso”, chimes with nocturnal spaciousness between horn and ivory. Rava is in seriously cirrus cloud form as he puffs around the poetic “Retrato em Branco e” and the two happily bop on the bouncy “The TriaL”. Hersch creates spring waters of rippling creeks as he plays piano and piano strings for the pulse of “Childs’ Play” and the two get prismatic on the title track. Lovely  pastels and charcoals.

www.ecmrecords.com

Leave a Reply