Andrew Moorhead: Interleaved

Pianist Andrew Moorhead leads a team of bassist Marcos Varela and drummer Ari Hoenig  through a collection of mostly originals and standards. His originals feel like he takes a simple theme, not unlike Beethoven’s 5th, and turns it around and inside out for an entire songs. Thus, “World Wind” has a relentless pattern that gets  explored and stretched, “A Key In A Pool” gets repeated over and over in various stylings, and drummer Hoenig gets into the act with a drum led “Five Tom” and the restless “Crystal Wind”. Most intriguing is how Moorhead completely reworks two standards, so “Someday My Prince Will Come” gets prismatic for a frame around Varela’s bass, and “The Days of Wine and Roses” has the team dig in deep. The concept is bookended by some electronic noodles and excursions, as if to try to hold the ideas in a plugged in cup. Abounding ideas.

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