Zoe Rahman - Dreamland
The Guardian 80
(Manushi)
For a pianist, there’s a world of difference between playing with the bass and drums support of a jazz trio and launching oneself into space unaccompanied. Zoe Rahman has often done it before live audiences, but this is her first recorded solo flight. Jazz is only one element in the music she creates, but there’s a sonorous depth in her playing that I always associate with Duke Ellington. In fact, there’s a gorgeous version here of his piece, A Single Petal of a Rose. But most of the 14 tracks are her own compositions, notably the catchy Red Squirrel and the spacious J’Berg, and they add up to an exciting set, brilliantly performed and totally absorbing.
Continue reading... Sun Jun 19 07:00:02 GMT 2016The Guardian 60
(Manushi)
The British/Bengali pianist Zoe Rahman, a Mobo winner in 2012 for her rootsy world-folk album Kindred Spirits, seems to have been focusing her thoughts on more intimate music in recent years. She toured with Courtney Pine a a popular ballads-devoted duo, worked with the double-bass star George Mraz and now release her first solo piano album of originals and jazz evergreens, with first takes producing most of the forceful and tender results. Rahman’s bass-stamping, McCoy Tyner-influenced rhythmic power surges through Red Squirrel, and her lullaby Fast Asleep strikes a characteristic balance of warmth and strength. The Rabindranath Tagore song Kar Milono Chao Birohi is an anthemic melody over deep, rolling chords, and Epicentre is an impressionistic, free-rhythmic original. Duke Ellington’s The Single Petal of a Rose is casually wrapped in graceful embroideries, Abdullah Ibrahim’s Sunset in Blue rocks with the South African legend’s youthful vim, and These Foolish Things combines a jaunty swing piano feel and an intensifying bluesy clout. Dreamland is a powerful testament to this fine pianist’s growing authority.