Avenging Angel
Released
Avenging Angel charted pianist Craig Taborn on the map of unaccompanied improvisation—a territory largely claimed, of course, by Keith Jarrett. But Taborn holds his own, not least of all because he graciously avoids such comparisons beyond the paper on which they’re written. Taborn has an uncanny ability to make the keys speak as much as sing, as in the lullaby sweetness of “This Voice Says So.” And while there is plenty of drama to behold (to wit: “Spirit Hard Knock”), it never loses clarity of visual impact. The culminating “This Is How You Disappear” beckons one relisten after another.