Greg Murphy: Snap Happy

A powerful and perceptive reading of Bronislau Kaper's "On Green Dolphin Street" sets the compass on Snap Happy, a splendid recording by pianist Greg Murphy's trio (and sometimes quartet) which is the New York-based artist's eighth album as leader of his own groups.

To begin where the rubber meets the road, Murphy is a marvelous pianist, undergirding his superb technique with an abundance of sharp and creative digressions that should gladden almost any listener. Yet even while he commands the driver's seat, the stewardship of his companions (bassist Obasi Akoto, drummer Steve Johns) should not be discounted, as it is an indispensable part of the trio's signature. Guitarist Mark Whitfield makes it a quartet on three numbers, and Sy Smith is listed as vocalist on the high-octane "Geneva," but if that is true, his voice is pretty much erased by the turbulence. Akoto and Johns are given ample blowing space, and make the most of it with several bright and engaging solos.

Besides playing marvelous piano, Murphy wrote or co-wrote (with Akoto and Johns) three of the album's dozen numbers, which are performed back-to-back midway through the session. "Snap Happy" is an assertive swinger (on which Murphy plays electric piano), "Equality" a colorful amalgam with absorbing time changes, "Proximity" a meditative theme featuring Akoto's arco bass. Wayne Shorter is represented by "Twelve More Bars to Go," Thelonious Monk by the light and bustling "Pannonica" and waltz-like "Monk's Mood," Lenny White by "The Shadow of Lo." The trio exits the way it entered, nailing a second Bronislau Kaper composition, the dazzling and too-seldom-heard "All God's Chillun Got Rhythm," first sung by Duke Ellington's extremely talented but ill-starred vocalist, Ivie Anderson, in the 1937 Marx Brothers film A Day at the Races.

Snap Happy is an impressive and well-recorded (at the famed Van Gelder Studios) album wherein everyone is fully engaged and the music is luminous and pleasing. As trio sessions go, it is well above the norm and well worth hearing.