I was drawn to this truth be told because of the guest vocals by English jazz singer Claire Martin. But I am not familiar however with American pianist and composer Jeremy Siskind who leads proceedings. Seeking information about him a Google search revealed he was a student of Fred Hersch, and is the author of a number of piano instructional books.
Recorded with expat Pole bassist Darek Oles and late period Bill Evans American drummer Joe LaBarbera, and featuring Martin rewardingly sprinkled about, the album moves comfortably between contemporary piano trio jazz and pop song influenced vocal material. The title track and ‘Murakami’ reveal Siskind’s gift for melodic development and understated harmonic colour, while ‘Greedy Capitalism’ introduces a sharper political edge without jarring. Jaw jaw is better than war, war any day.
There’s a clear influence on Siskind of Hersch on ‘Snow’. Oles and LaBarbera know that terrain so well, LaBarbera learning it in his turn from Bill Evans most perhaps.
Claire Martin’s contributions add warmth and emotional depth, especially on Leonard Cohen’s ‘Everybody Knows’ and the Siskind/Martin original ‘A Photograph’. Her Shirley Horn influenced phrasing suits the album’s introspective atmosphere. The vocal tracks do not disrupt the momentum established by the instrumental pieces. If anything they enhance these. I love the version of Paul Simon’s ‘René and Georgette Magritte with Their Dog After the War‘ which was on Simon’s 1983 album Hearts and Bones, a ballad that on that album had an orchestration by the great French film composer Georges Delerue.
The approach here is more pared back. Certainly Seeking Balance succeeds because of its maturity and intelligence, factors that are often forgotten about in a dumbed down world by people who truly believe you can polish a turd and seem bizarrely to applaud both the process and the outcome.
So beautiful is a version of Tom Harrell and Lisa Michel’s ‘Snow’ that Jane Monheit sang on Harrell’s 2003 album Wise Children. Martin’s vocal is every bit as good as Monheit’s. My instinct is to emerge from this album with this track as the one that moved me most.
Siskind’s accompaniment has a lot of tenderness and I can imagine Richard Rodney Bennett, someone Martin worked with extensively, smiling down on this in approval from the great on high as Siskind inhabits his domain so wonderfully well.
