Dick Hyman & Ken Peplowski - Counterpoint (2019)

Pianist Dick Hyman and clarinetist/saxophonist Ken Peplowski both possess virtuosity beyond imagination. In a partnership that spans over 25 years, they've been producing work as technically flawless as it is wildly creative, born of a magical compatibility. Like the marriage of other iconic duos, such as Stéphane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt and Ruby Braff and Ellis Larkins, Hyman and Peplowski stimulate each other to exceed the sum of their two parts.

This latest collaboration, Counterpoint: Lerner & Loewe, takes many of the familiar tunes of another splendidly creative duo, Broadway lyricist Alan Jay Lerner and composer Frederick Loewe, and steers them into new territory beyond stock interpretations.

There is a legend about the 92-year old Hyman that he's never missed a note. Throughout Counterpoint: Lerner & Loewe his technical prowess is purely stunning as is his mastery of just about every piano genre there is. ''Thank Heaven for Little Girls'' (Gigi) sounds almost vaudevillian, with a stride foundation underlying the upbeat elation of Peplowski's melodic appreciation of the fairer sex. It falls to Peplowski on most of the tracks to handle the melody while Hyman provides a wealth of contrast in investigating his musical ideas. He does take a piano solo on one of two versions of the title song to Gigi, his playing emulating an entire orchestra. Peplowski's ability to play a melody with purity and authenticity is demonstrated in the short (2:11) ''If Ever I Would Leave You'' (Camelot), offered with a graceful yet soulful delivery. On the tenor saxophone version of ''Gigi'', Peplowski takes a page from the Ben Webster ballad songbook, playing a low, sweet ode impeccable in its phrasing and storytelling.

The two are also contrapuntal in intent. ''I Talk to the Trees'' (Paint Your Wagon) and ''Follow Me'' (Camelot), for instance, numbers meant to be sung/ played with a certain gravitas, are instead injected with uptempo whimsy. ''Waitin' for My Dearie'' (Brigadoon) is another jaunt, an amusing and lightly tripping romp straying far from its melody into territory where calland-response make its own statement.

Although Lerner and Loewe are synonymous with Broadway blockbusters, an early work, the unsuccessful The Day Before Spring, is all but forgotten; Hyman and Peplowski pay homage with two tracks, ''A Jug of Wine'', which in its change of tempo comically invokes a sober mood drifting into the realm of tipsy; and ''You Haven't Changed at All'', the masters on extraordinary flights of fancy and outré improvisations rightly termed avant garde . It s a remarkable demonstration of how these two wizards inspire each other to up their game in the creative moment. Counterpoint: Lerner & Loewe is a paean to sublime artistry. ~Marilyn Lester