Loren Stillman: Blind Date

Blind Date begins promisingly, the title tune showcasing Stillman's balladry and coming across fully as a combination of Lee Konitz and a dry martini; the perfect start for someone who blew the house away—a negative connotation—with his avant-garde playing in the past.

Stillman reports that he studied with both Konitz and Dave Liebman, but his influences also include Béla Bartók and Frank Zappa. After bassist Drew Gress and pianist Gary Versace solo on the seven minute-plus "What Will People Think," the altoist approaches his playing with some edginess, in the general vicinity of Ornette Coleman's early-1960s Atlantic period.

Stillman's group is well-chosen to accompany him. Versace doesn't always provide the more standardized comping and cushioning, laying out during Stillman's solo on "Theme For A New Regime," while providing some dissonant flourishes on "Don't Be Too Nice" that are later matched by Gress and drummer Joey Baron. Gress and Baron are individualistic musicians and the drummer's experience with outside players helps.

"Theme for a New Regime" and "Don't Be Too Nice" find Stillman very carefully toeing a line between mainstream and avant-garde. It is almost as if his long phrases and swoops are making it clear that he is fully capable of taking it out, but is providing just a taste of it here. Appropriately, the closing tracks ("Major," "Legroom" and "Etude) offer something that this listener would want to hear more of, but that may well have to wait for another occasion.