Palmetto

Jazz duos don’t come much better suited than Marty Ehrlich and Myra Melford, a pair of composer-instrumentalists whose imaginations are exponentially larger than their egos. As an acoustic pianist, Melford has a percussive style and a soulful, near-gospel, sensibility. Ehrlich, on alto sax and clarinet, frequently erupts with birdlike elation and alacrity.

His first trio album since the '90s, Night & the Music finds journeyman jazz pianist Fred Hersch, along with bassist Drew Gress and drummer Nasheet Waits, delving into an atmospheric and intimate mix of originals and standards. Hersch has always been a tasteful, harmonically adventurous, and deeply emotive musician, and that is certainly the case here.

Bassist Ben Allison arrived on the New York jazz scene in the early '90s when it was rigidly controlled by a small coterie of neo-conservative "young lions." Like a number of his contemporaries, Allison chose to work under the radar rather than go along with the trend, organizing the Jazz Composers Collective. Allison's sextet, Medicine Wheel, is an outgrowth of the JCC.

Andrew Hill's first album since 1990's But Not Farewell is also his first for Palmetto, a daring indie label for which his unorthodox music is perfectly suited.

This CD is phenomenal.