Renee Rosnes: Kinds of Love

Still riding high on the energy generated by her superwoman jazz group Artemis—Anat Cohen, Melissa Aldana, Ingrid Jensen, Noriko Ueda and Allison Miller— pianist Renee Rosnes, undaunted by the string of world crises but just as ruminative as the rest of us, elicits some of the most emotive and enthralling music of her career on Kinds of Love.

Drummer Carl Allen and percussionist and vocalist Rogerio Boccato set "Silk" into shadowy, tribal motion from which Rosnes and the rest of her inspired ensemble, longtime foil and conspirator saxophonist Chris Potter and bassist Christian McBride, fire and foment an unstoppable all-hands-on-deck approach. Its equal parts blowing off steam after a very dark lull and a nod to Rosnes who knows how to present the best with her best.

"Kinds of Love" is simply one of those pieces of music you wish everyone would take the time to dwell on instead of doom scrolling or unfurling rogue flags. Its anthemic lyricism and hushed pathways conjure what the world would be if we just cleared the clutter from our minds and our hearts and listened to each other. When Rosnes hands off to Potter just past the tune's midway point, whole new vistas of hope begin to blossom.

Though it's the first of two spins on her Fender Rhodes, the boys quickly take over "In Time Like Air." Fusion in spirit and structure, Allen and Boccato push relentlessly forward as McBride dribbles, drops and swoops between Potter's high concepts and Rosnes' cloud of influence. Named after the club that was before it became the Village Vanguard, "The Golden Triangle" is your Vanguard-ish style bop, the exhilarating kind that gets everyone out of their seats calling for an encore. "Passing Jupiter" finds McBride chasing Potter, on his high-flying bass clarinet, across the universe.

Rosnes, as if seancing with Chick Corea, arranges "Life Does Not Wait (A Vida Nao Espera)" to be one of those time defying Return to Forever tracks that, though it may mine many a rich vein, culminates in its own elegant logic. "Swoop" is swoop is swoop. Wherein the team swings and swings because that's what they were born to do. Even with its dusky harmonies, "Blessings In a Year of Exile" sheds light on the underlying anxiety that though nothing seems particularly easy these troubled days, it's up to each of us, individually and as a whole, not to make it any more complicated than it need be.

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