Improbable Solutions

If you ask me, the "improbable solution" at which keyboardist/composer Bill Anschell arrived in creating this album had to do with creating a program that draws equally on the straight-ahead jazz verities and on forward-thinking experimentation without sacrificing one for the other. Very few are able to strike that balance, and his achievement here is significant. Compare, for example, the rockish and melodically angular "Is This Thing Even On?" with the more conventionally jazzy "Nimbus," and then compare both of them with the lovely "Hidden Nobility," which blends the two approaches perfectly. Anschell has been on the jazz scene for 40 years, but his previous albums as a leader have all been acoustic affairs — this one finds him striking out in fruitful new electronic directions, and is highly recommended to all jazz collections.