Light Made Lighter
Craig Taborn takes the basic jazz trio--piano, bass, and drums--and shakes it up good. "Bodies We Came Out Of" sounds like an adrenalized remake of Thelonious Monk's skeletal "Misterioso," with a hint of hip-hop in drummer Gerald Cleaver's cymbal rhythms. This working trio (with bassist Chris Lightcap) knows how to pull together without tripping itself up, even while taking broad liberties with the pulse. Taborn's brisk take on "I Cover the Waterfront" (the lone standard here) is a caricature of cocktail piano: he stretches and contracts the melody, tosses off rapid asides with one hand while pursuing a separate line with the other, piles up notes and sweeps them aside. It'd be comic if the piano playing wasn't so deft, and the bass and drums weren't on his heels all the way. The creative tension dissipates on slow numbers, which do however let Taborn show off a more delicate touch. The uptempo tracks mark this as one of the more dynamic piano trios anywhere.--Kevin Whitehead