Review of Paul Cornish album You’re Exaggerating

With a title like the amused tone of “you’re exaggerating” emblazoned up top the temptation is to lop off a star rating or two. But the quality here is no exaggeration and to mislay a teeny weeny asterisk or three would be plain daft. Not a well known name yet although that’s changing fast given that pianist Paul Cornish is on one of 2025’s best albums, Joshua Redman’s Words Fall Short – click for a review and now this high profile outing on his own on Redman’s current label, Cornish from Houston reminds me in places of Robert Glasper a bit but he has a whole bag of tricks of his own on this largely trio album and comparisons aren’t really useful.

The bassist here Joshua Crumbly I’ve heard live in Terence Blanchard’s band but I don’t know the work of drummer Jonathan Pinson so much. It’s a canny choice of guest in Tortoise guitarist Jeff Parker cropping up fleetingly but that while welcome is more of a distraction and the track he’s on called ‘Palindrome’ isn’t the strongest track although fans of Parker may well disagree.

Nevertheless there are plenty of great tunes and it’s all the more striking that they provide a generous glimpse of how Cornish composes. I liked the tribute to Geri Allen best. In recent years Blue Note have introduced us to a number of new artists notably James Francies and Immanuel Wilkins and certainly Cornish’s playing is of just as high a level as both of these although Brandon Woody is the most striking new artist on the label this year. Hear Cornish at Ronnie Scott’s this bank holiday weekend following release. The tracks above are already streaming.