Steve Kuhn - Mostly Coltrane

Steve Kuhn's career started in the 50s and since mid-60s he has been recording and releasing a great deal of post-bop piano. He recorded with many big shots in the jazz world, most famous of them is John Coltrane. Unfortunately for Kuhn he played with Trane for a very brief time in 1960 and got replaced in the quartet by McCoy Tyner without recording anything.

Almost 50 years later Kuhn finally decided to record a tribute album to the great saxophonist containing tunes written or associated with Coltrane. It's called Mostly Coltrane. I picked it up just for one song, "The Night Has a Thousand Eyes" (originally recorded by Trane on Coltrane's Sound in 1960), but other 12 tunes are worth checking out, too.

Kuhn plays with the listener perfectly. While Coltrane's "The Night Has a Thousand Eyes" started with that unforgettable riff right away, Brooklyn-born pianist isn't rushing anywhere. He plays many notes teasing the listener with the melody, but never playing it in its original, crystal clear form. Kuhn's not covering Trane's work, he's reinventing it at times. His band includes bassist David Finck, drummer Joey Baron and guesting Joe Lovano on sax, who is an especially good addition to the usual Kuhn's trio.

Kuhn's usually a little too classical-oriented for my taste, but Mostly Coltrane will go down in 21st century jazz history as one of the finest tributes to John Coltrane.