Via Asheville, NC, the pensive piano jazz stylings of Steve Okonski. File under nocturne. All improvised and recorded live to a Tascam 388, the trio’s (pianist Okonski, double bassist Michael Isvara Montgomery and drummer Aaron Frazer) interplay feels both intuitive and effortless.
Keith Jarrett / Jack Dejohnette :: Ruta and Daitya
Recorded in 1971, and released two years later via ECM, Keith Jarrett’s collaboration with drummer Jack DeJohnette marks one of the last times the keyboardist would flex electric. Fresh off his two year stint behind the boards in Miles Davis’s electric band, Ruta and Daitya features seven duets produced by label head Manfred Eicher. With a palette skirting between sinuous electric funk and acoustic washes of percussion, flute and piano, the forty-one minute runtime does well to maintain a cohesive identity without feeling aesthetically schizophrenic.