Will there be a better jazz piano album this year? Maybe, but McCormack has set a high benchmark and, in the process, surprised a few listeners and, I hasten to add, none more so than myself!
I'd always been impressed by the pianist having heard him in many different settings including some where he leaned towards the outside of the ever expanding jazz spectrum. That he did it well was indisputable but, I always felt there was more to him than tilting at windmills and, with this recording, his true self is revealed.
However, don't take my word for it, read what the great man himself has to say: Musically, this is my home, this is where I started ...
McCormack's original compositions relate to so much of what is going on in this dreadful time we're living (and dying) in.
George Floyd, the war in Ukraine, fake news and other issues are explored musically as well as his own take on Bird's Confirmation, that favourite of Scandinavian jazzers Dear Old Stockholm, Sting's Fragile and Monk's Work.
Imagine if Hampton Hawes, Bud Powell or Bill Evans were playing now or if McCormack was playing then and you might get an idea of what this 10 star album is all about.
Downard and Youngs provide a rhythm section to die for slotting in comfortably and giving the pianist an armchair ride. Forgive me if I seem to be going over the top but it is so far removed from what I expected that I just can't stop playing it over and over and over! I can't keep my feet on the ground or, to be more precise, Terra Firma.
Terra Firma comes out on Ubuntu Music on Oct. 28. Lance
Brooklyn Memoir; Clemintine Dream; Second Circle; Somebody Else's Song; Confirmation; Fragile; Dear Old Stockholm; Fake News; Better to Have Loved; Cherry Blossom; Work; Prayer For Atonement.
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