Mario Pavone

I have been listening to Deez to Blues (2006) by the Mario Pavone Sextet on this fine Halloween night.  Nothing spooky about the music.  It is just fine, inventive, and slightly edgy jazz.  Pavone plays bass, and is best known for backing up Thomas Chapin.  From the All Music Guide the band includes:

Steven Bernstein: trumpet, slide trumpet; Howard Johnson: tuba, baritone saxophone, bass clarinet; Charles Burnham: violin; Peter Madsen: piano; Michael Sarin: drums.

Everyone is good and the rich weave of textures is about as good as you will find on a modern jazz album.   The contrast between the fat brass of the Bernstein's trumpet and the deep scoop of Johnson's low horns is magnificent.  If that weren't enough, Burnham's adds another spatial and temporal dimension to the sound, as if he were polishing the thick tiles of the other solos. 

I have to say, however, that Madsen is just brilliant on piano.  I haven't encountered a piano player that delighted me this much in a long time. 

This is great jazz and it will appeal to avant garde fans who like Bop and Bop fans who fans who like someone who, as the Troy Collins puts it, "bends the rules without breaking them."  I have added a couple cuts to my Live365 page: "Zines" and "Day of the Dark Bright Light".  I downloaded the album from Amazon.