Heartbeat

Playing piano and Rhodes, Ben Winkelman creates some clever melodies and ideas with a simpatico team of Matt Penman/b and Obed Calvaire/dr with Gilad Hekselman/g sitting in for most of the treatises. As a threesome, Winkelman sets up a gentle "Isolation" that eventually builds up to form a pastoral post bop suite, while Penman is playful during "The Plague". When Hekselmanjoins in, there's a sense of adventure with the leader mixing Mozartian ideas into "Praise", and his left hand conversing with right on "Chilches". The keyboard tunes feature a tastefully soulful "For Tilden" that has Hekselman gliding through, while Calvaire does some nimble stick work around "Machine". Versatile verses.