Search - Uri Caine :: Blue Wail

Pianist Uri Caine is enjoying a far-reaching wingspread, from this beautiful (and wonderfully packaged) trio CD to his Wagner e Venezia string sextet CD and his even more rambunctious set of Gustav Mahler pieces, Urlicht/Primal Light. By comparison to these titles, Caine's Blue Wail is downright cozy, a tight series of compositions and cover tunes played with strength and precision by himself, bassist James Genus, and drummer Ralph Peterson. Caine opens and closes with particularly tilted looks at "Honeysuckle Rose," but between the brackets, it's straight-up piano trio jazz. Caine plays with the same mix of power and delicateness that marks Peterson's drumming, which on occasion here is close to over the top. The falling rhythms and tumbling segues are all great in the context of their tunes, but taken alone, some might be a bit overdone. That's a minor quibble, though, when measured against the ingenuity of these melodies and the trio's first-rate soloing. --Andrew Bartlett