We reckoned that Playing the Room - pianist Yonathan Avishai's duet with trumpeter Avishai Cohen - was one of 2019's albums of the year.
It worked because of its mastery of mood.
And that's again a factor here on the extremely well A&R'd French label Jazz & People with whom the Tel Aviv born pianist has collaborated before.
But back on that earlier ECM release referred to above the Sasha Argov composition ‘Shir Eres’ covered in the past memorably by Noa was pretty unforgettable.
Drawn from Shapes and Sounds out on 18 October our track of the week - check the performance video and also the audio on Spotify - is one of eight and sequenced to appear in the run as the second track. This new recording is Avishai with double bassist Yoni Zelnik and drummer Donald Kontomano.
Zelnik is on Laurent Coq's beautiful new release Confidences also issued by the same Paris jazz indie.
Thoughts of Ravel
The track itself, a flick of a piano lick folds into some bass balm, is very simple and yet playful. The little decorative flourishes towards the end come as a lovely jeu d'esprit. Less is - as so often - so very much more. There's a lot fed in. You may even think of Ravel when you put the album down. I know I did afterwards playing the adagio assai movement of the Piano Concerto in G major. And why not.
A nod to Satchmo and chanson
Avishai's trio has been together for a decade. The selected track is one of six of his originals plus on the upcoming album there is a cover of 1920s song 'When You’re Smiling' sung and played by Louis Armstrong towards the end of the 20s on a lovable version of the song plus chansonnier Léo Ferré's mid-1960s classic, 'La Mélancolie.'
Yonathan Avishai, photo: via YouTube
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