Lucian Ban is a classically trained Romanian jazz pianist and composer who in recent years has become a key figure on New York's downtown jazz scene. This album is devoted to the work of Romanian classical genius George Enescu, the violin virtuoso who taught Yehudi Menuhin, and whose compositions looked westward to the regular classical repertoire and eastward to oriental music, while being rooted in his homeland's folk traditions. The adventurous intentions of Ban and his bassist and composing collaborator John Hebert can be deduced from this lineup – pitch-bending free-jazz viola improviser Mat Maneri, the brusquely lyrical saxist Tony Malaby, resourceful jazz/contemporary-classical trumpeter Ralph Alessi, former Miles Davis and Ornette Coleman tabla player Badal Roy among them. Eight of Enescu's sinewy themes are dropped sparingly but memorably between long passages of sympathetic improvisation and astute use of a mixed-genre lineup. Smoky tenor-sax reflections are embraced by swelling viola and violin lines, dramatically enhanced by Alessi. Fast trumpet solos with tabla rhythms turn into a seesawing Enescu folk-melody, and percussive Indian chanting is prodded by Herbie Hancockish piano chords and then raw free-jazz sax. It's a rare combination of uninhibited but coherent solo and collective improv, shrewd arrangement and dazzling thematic writing (John Fordham/The Guardian)
