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John Donaldson

Music Box

Woodville Records WVCD110

One of the great (if relatively undersung) piano players of recent British jazz (having played with Don Weller, Iain Ballamy, Art Themen, Alan Barnes and a host of other UK figures, not to mention visitors such as Art Farmer, Scott Hamilton, Ingrid Jensen and Jon Gordon), John Donaldson has been described as 'a bit like McCoy Tyner with the volume and temperature turned down' by John Fordham, and the description fits the piano playing on this album pretty neatly.

It begins with a couple of Monk pieces, 'Trinkle Tinkle' (a tricksy theme rendered even tricksier in this version) and a spring-heeled visit to 'Light Blue', includes a number of intelligently varied originals and also mines the Weller band repertoire for the likes of Bobby Timmons's gospelly shuffle 'Dis Here' and (one of the album's highlights) the roiling Ross/Adler flagwaver 'Hey There'.

Throughout, Donaldson, whether lamenting the loss of Michel Petrucciani in the tender solo eponymous threnody dedicated to him or indulging in a freely improvised duo piece with drummer Asaf Sirkis ('Unknown'), is a patient, absorbing player by no means averse to building Tyneresque tension and release into his solos, but generally more interested in the subtle melodic and rhythmic felicities that can be drawn from them.

In this, he's shadowed every step of the way by an extremely sympathetic rhythm section, Sirkis (a supremely sensitive drummer none the less capable of high-octane energy playing where required) and Oli Hayhurst, a bassist whose sterling qualities will be familiar to club regulars.

A fine trio album that shares some of its repertoire with another recent Donaldson release, a duo recording with fellow pianist Mark Edwards, Live at Appleby Jazz Festival (Trio TR 571).