Orrin Evans - Liberation Blues (2014) [Hi-Res]

In contrast to Cyrus Chestnut's hyper-intuitive trio, pianist Orrin Evans brings a bright quintet to bear with trumpeter Sean Jones and tenor saxophonist JD Allen. A full half of the Smoke performance is dedicated to "The Liberation Blues Suite" to whom Evans dedicated to bassist Dwayne Burno who died of kidney disease December 28, 2013. The suite opens with two Burno compositions, "Devil Eyes" and "Juanita." The former is a brisk cooker featuring the whole band in a cooperative display of empathy. The latter is a ballad with a delicate head that proves more durable than it initially sounds. Evans composed two of the last three pieces for the suite, the angular "A Lil' D.A.B a Do Ya" and the closing, "Liberation Blues," which is evidence of the continuing evolution of the blues as a discreet art form.

Outside of the suite, Evans contributes a couple of originals, the freely swinging "Simply Green" a useful vehicle for Jones' precision trumpet playing. Paul Motian's "Mumbo Jumbo" provides a craggy, dissonant head and the wide open harmonic spaces in which the horns dance a drunken waltz. Evans reprises his performance of "How High the Moon" which he and Jones shared on Jones' recent Mack Avenue release Im-pro-vise: Never Heard Before (2014). Evans, like Chestnut, includes a closing vamp on Miles Davis' "The Theme" before the encore of "The Night has a Thousand Eyes" sung by Joanna Pascale. Study and solid.