Night Leaves - Jaki Byard

In these piano and cello duets, it's clearly a classical upbringing with jazz sensibilities that each of these two musicians brings to the table. There's a beautiful sense of harmonic understanding and freedom, a sense of timing beyond structured rhythms, and an empathy that these two retain simply by listening closely to one another. They split writing duties, but it's evident that spontaneous composition is the key here. On the piano Byard is an expert at stair-step delicacy, and he proves this during the title cut. He has a feel for Americana, evidenced by "Louise," and his knowledge of economy is featured on his solo "To Our Family," in which he uses more space than notes. Eyges plays the electric (amplified only) cello masterfully, whether singing lead with Byard's piano in the background during his (not Monk's) piece "Reflections," doing the same on his solo "Broken Circle," or plucking as a bassist would for the free, call and response-based improv "Why It Is." At their most interactive the two artists dig deeply into cool, 12-bar blues grooves for the more barrelhouse-inflected 5/4 "Gimme Some/Cinco Quatro Boogie Woogie," and the groove to chamber-like multiple motifs of "Epietis, Phaedrus, Terence, Metis" with a haunting piano and cello in unison, chiming the refrain. Bowed cello leads to fractious, edited, minced piano chords on "The Chase," while the introspective lullaby "Waltz for Louise" shows Byard and Eyges at their zenith, in terms of coalescing their theoretically shared sound and values. The ballad "Toni" has mixed feelings of longing, sorrow, hopefulness, and bright passion. This is a compelling, beautiful recording, perhaps one-of-a-kind in the creative jazz field. It's also a great showpiece for the brilliance of two clearly skilled improvisers, who are also romanticists and pure music lovers. Night Leaves is highly recommended, and unquestionably a high point in both of their careers. ~ Michael G. Nastos, All Music Guide