“Whirlpool,” Ran Blake and Dominique Eade

“Whirlpool,”

Ran Blake and Dominique Eade

Musicians who care about jazz the most are those concerned about what jazz will sound like tomorrow -- or 10 years from now.

Will it have lots of dissonance? Will the rhythms be deliberately erratic? Will it swing with a jagged edge or a supple muscularity? There is definitely a sense these days that the grinding agitation of free jazz and all the jazz fusion combinations from the 1970s were dead ends.

Many players have begun giving great thought to reconnecting with the lyricism of bebop and ballads more reminiscent of the 1950s.

If you’re thinking “Who cares?” then don’t bother with this enlightened collection of 13 tracks containing a protean mix of classic pop standards and lesser known tunes

Ran Blake, a pioneer pianist in the Third Stream genre combining elements of classical and jazz compositions, is matching improve and ideas with singer Dominique Eade. Both are on the faculty of the New England Conservatory of Music.

Given Blake’s fifty-plus years of searching the meadows of harmony for new combinations of notes, it is impossible to hear more than two tracks from “Whirlpool” without wanting to smoke a cigarette and smile to remember Formica-topped kitchen tables with chrome legs.

Even the album’s liner notes mentions “the subconscious motivations of classic film noir” in Blake’s work. Add in Eade’s high-sheen vocals and the combined effect is modern jazz as seen through the haze of asymmetrical furniture designs, massive marble ash trays and those spun aluminum drinking glasses in bright colors that have never occurred in nature.

There are no other musicians.

All the songs are performed at a ballad tempo, which at times is haunting, at other times optimistic or filled with rue. The nuances are experimental enough that you must stop whatever you are doing and listen. This is definitely not music for the cocktail hour.

To hear some quotes and order a copy: www.ranblake.com or www.dominiqueeade.com

“Whirlpool,”

Ran Blake and Dominique Eade

2011 Jazz Project Recordings (JP 3002)