What Exit
A live-wire improviser in avant-garde jazz settings who also has a pedigreed background in country fiddling, Brooklyn-born violinist Mark Feldman still may be one of the music world's best kept secrets. That could change with this, his first album for ECM under his own name, on which he builds on his work with the Masada String Trio to further explore the intersections between classical music and jazz. Interacting at a high level with a distinguished international rhythm section--British pianist John Taylor, Swedish bassist Anders Jormin and American drummer Tom Rainey--Feldman gravitates with supreme subtlety from airy lyrical statements to playful swing rhythms ("Ink Pin" is a particular delight) to works of a searching intensity. Some of his compositions, including the 20-minute opener, "Arcade," make demands the casual listener may not be up to. But though his virtuosity is never flashy, you may find yourself getting carried away by it all the same.--Lloyd Sachs