Leslie Pintchik: Prayer For What Remains

Pianist and composer Leslie Pintchik abandoned a promising career as an educator at New York's Columbia University in favor of writing and playing piano full-time. What has become clear since then, and especially on her eighth album, Prayer for What Remains, is that academia's loss is beyond any doubt the jazz world's gain.

Pintchik leads her working trio here, with guest appearances by the esteemed soprano saxophonist Steve Wilson on two numbers and percussionist Satoshi Takeishi on seven. With or without them, the music is smooth and seamless as Pintchik's graceful and perceptive piano leads the way while bassist Scott Hardy and drummer Michael Sarin are alert and secure in their supporting roles.

Besides playing impeccably, Pintchik wrote eight of the album's ten melodious and agreeable selections. The others are John Lennon and Paul McCartney's easygoing "I Will" and Joni Mitchell's rhythmically flavorful "Banquet," which are performed back-to-back after the first five of Pintchik's themes. The session closes with three more of the leader's seductive compositions: "Open Secret," "Grief" and "Just Sayin,'" the last recorded live at NYC's Jazz at Kitano, which, unlike Pintchik's trio, is no longer active.

Pintchik is admirable, as a writer and player, and her bandmates (one of whom, bassist Hardy, is a mate in more ways than one, as he and Pintchik have been married for more than thirty-five years) are sharp and supportive, especially as there is nothing here that is likely to eclipse their usual comfort zone. As for Wilson, he is lustrous and eloquent on the opening "Prayer for What Remains" and upbeat "Over Easy," while Takeishi's percussion adds depth and color to the enterprise.

In all, a far better-than-average small-group session, enhanced by Pintchik's engaging charts and elegant piano, Wilson's sagacious soprano and Takeishi's precise percussion.