COMPOSERS: Jason Rebello
LABELS: Onion
PERFORMER: Jason Rebello (p), Mark Turner (as, ts, ss), Orlando Le Fleming (b), Jeff ‘Tain’ Watts, Jeremy Stacey (d)
CATALOGUE NO: ONR 1003 (distr. TEN)
Jason Rebello is an exceptionally talented British pianist and composer who surfaced in the later Eighties and, by the end of that decade had an international reputation. By 1994, he was becoming deeply disillusioned with the music world, and, in 1995, sought the contemplative life in the Buddhist Monastery at Bradford on Avon.
Two years later, he was back on the London jazz scene and now, Next Time Round, dedicated to the memory of pianist Kenny Kirkland, is his best album to date. Nine of the twelve pieces are excellent Rebello compositions, and the other three comprise two standards, and an astonishingly convincing trio performance of a reharmonised version of ‘Jerusalem’.
The excellent saxophonist Mark Turner plays on six of the tracks, the rhythm section swings ecstatically and Rebello’s playing is masterly throughout – mature, never faltering and rich in fresh ideas, rhythmic, harmonic and melodic.