I’m really not sure if this gem has been out before given that it was recorded in 2010. I have no idea if it is new but assume it is unless informed to the contrary. Why it has taken so long to be released is baffling. But more certainly the pianist leader Ivan Farmakovskiy isn’t that known beyond his native Russia certainly compared with the two icons he is working with here – the great Oscar Pettiford inspired bassist Christian McBride known for his work with Brad Mehldau, Joshua Redman and Brian Blade and their fellow Americans the Keith Jarrett Standards trio drummer Jack DeJohnette. Farmakovskiy wrote most of the tunes and there’s a cover of Lennon & McCartney’s ‘And I Love Her.’ Among the Russian’s tunes ‘Conciliation’ is based fairly obviously on Richard Rodgers’ ‘The Lady Is A Tramp.’ DeJohnette is on great form and to be frank I listened to his playing as much as the pianist’s here – ‘Professor’ in particular is made sense of entirely by DeJohnette who himself is a good piano player.
Earlier work of the pianist’s includes 2008’s Next to the Shadow (note the slight variation in spelling of his surname) recorded in New York that had Jazz at Lincoln Center trumpeter Ryan Kisor, Russian jazz mover-and-shaker saxist Igor Butman on it among the luminaries involved. There’s also a release called The Way Home put out by the Butman Music label dating to around 2010 that features Mingus Dynasty drummer Donald Edwards among the personnel.
Overall on this new one the style is modal, impressionistic, its thoughtfulness at odds with the album title “epic power” (apart from brutal opener ‘Soul Inside Out’) although there is that coiled, inherent pent up quality in the supreme musicianship of all involved itching to tip out – the pianist makes me think, without being at all random, of a fine UK pianist called Rob Barron a bit. Certainly there is plenty of personality and with such stellar company the whole thing makes you sit up, smell the coffee and pay attention even when everything is relatively understated given the style. Highlights also include McBride’s soloing on swinging Farmakovskiy tune, ‘My Beloved.’
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