Out In PA

During his long and illustrious career, Bill Mays has recorded extensively, most notably with Concord Jazz and Palmetto Records. On this album, recorded for his own label, he joins with Pennsylvania cronies Matt Wilson and Martin Wind, and together they offer up an adventurous menu of originals and standards. There's Wind's lengthy, spectral, and introspective "Out in PA," where each member of the trio has the opportunity to express himself (Wind's bass work is especially impressive on this number). The next tune on the playlist, "Witchcraft," is done with a bop beat, with Mays throwing in some very intriguing and complex figures along the way, sharpened by ricocheting rim shots by Wilson. A modernistic rendition of Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Zingaro" again features compelling bass playing from Wind. The Kurt Weill/Ira Gershwin classic "This Is New," from the musical Lady in the Dark, is given a more straight-ahead treatment than other cuts on the album, with Wilson's drums in the forefront. A Mays contribution to the set is "Kaleidoscope," which he composed in the mid-'60s. Like the title implies, the music creates the illusion of reflected light filtering through a prism, outlining blurry images, some more prominent than others. The sharper images are defined by clamorous piano and drums, and the hazier ones by softer piano blended with delicate doses of bass. The song makes a nice coda to an interesting and entertaining album.