
Pianist and jazz scholar Ake, along with brilliant saxophonist Peter Epstein and a powerful rhythm section, bassist Sam Minae, and drummer Mark Ferber have created an album that displays maturity of vision, profundity of thought and excellence in execution. The compositions, (and I believe they are very calculated compositions not extended improvisations, but it matters not) contain profound melodic structures that satisfy this listener\'s need for complete and discrete works something akin to a Mozart sonata. This is not to be critical of all the various structures and anti-structures in modern jazz, it just to say that Ake does what he does, writing brilliant and complex songs that build on traditional order, theme/exposition, variation, recapitulation, with an inevitability and thoughtfulness that for me is a constant delight. I hesitate to single out any of the extraordinary tunes here, but \"Two Stones\", \"Lake Effect\", and the piano solo \"Lone Pine\" get my vote for classics. P.S. Often I have found new music in the course of reading. Here after listening to Ake\'s music, for the first time, I have discovered a new book (his \"Jazz/Not Jazz\") . (April 7, 2015)