Antonio Ciacca Quintet & Steve Grossman: "Lagos Blues"

He just really must love it: Very busy, never linear Post-Bop.

No matter what happens, there will never be too many post-bop albums made, so if you’re jonesing for something vaguely Thelonious Monk-ish, this will make you have a good day.

Jazz pianist Ciacca (who’s actually into lesser-known post-boppers like Wynton Kelly and Bobby Timmons, so don’t come in looking for a big hit of Monkish whiz-pow) did a lot of time in Italy before doing a lot of time over here prior to putting out this watershed album of equal time shared between his piano and the sax of Steve Grossman (who replaced Wayne Shorter in Miles Davis’s 1969 fusion band). A lot goes on here, very busy, never linear, the band sounding a lot bigger than their 5 pieces on the swing passages, able to stop on a dime and become the world’s most unobtrusive bar-crew on the tinkly stuff.

Ciacca is acutely aware that his generation is hard into Hancock and Corea, so for him to leave the techno-cheese, vocoder, crypto-hip-hop grooves, etc., out of this equation – and pull it off so well – he just, you know, really must love it.

By Eric Saeger

Homepage: Antonio Ciacca
Homepage: Texacali Records