Erica von Kleist: Picc Pocket

Those who favor puns and clever wordplay should get their kicks from the song titles alone on Picc Pocket, a splendid new recording by piccolo guru Erica von Kleist 's hand-picced—and fun-loving— quartet and its spicc-tacular guest artists, trombonist Jennifer Krupa and tenor saxophonist John Ellis.

The piccolo (a close cousin of the flute) isn't often heard in a jazz context, which makes the enterprise even more picc-taking and picc-turesque. Von Kleist is a master of the instrument who paints a handsome picc-trait on every number.

When it comes to song titles, von Kleist touches almost every pun-laden base, starting with "We Know How to Picc 'Em" and continuing down that carefully picc-ed path with "Let Me Picc Your Brain," "Bone 2 Picc" (featuring Krupa), "Picc and Choose," "Picc Up Lines" (featuring Ellis) and, finally, "Picc a Peck." The only themes she seems to have overlooked are "You've Got to Picc a Pocket or Two" from the Broadway show Oliver!, and "Picc a Little, Talk a Little" from Meredith Willson's The Music Man.

While every tune on the menu is admirable, "Picc Up Lines" is especially picc-worthy, a flat-out swinger whose catchy melody, coupled with stellar solos by von Kleist, Ellis and drummer Anton Kot easily make it the picc of the litter. True, there are only half a dozen numbers, and the album's running time is a concise thirty-four minutes, but none of that time is wasted. And how often can one hear the piccolo played on a jazz album, let alone played as well as this? Hardly ever is the answer to that picc-teaser.

On the one hand, we have an album that is aptly named and ably performed by von Kleist, her quartet (whose other members are pianist Yago Vazquez and bassist Noriko Ueda) and their cherry-picced guests; on the other hand, there are but six tracks and a playing time of less than thirty-five minutes. The choice is yours; picc your poison.