Aaron Goldberg's star in modern jazz has constantly been on the rise, especially as an accompanist. With
Home, he establishes a delicate balance between the softer side of modern mainstream music a la
Bill Evans with the more advanced harmonic approach of
Keith Jarrett, while occasionally adding some rock-'em sock-'em neo-bop to the proceedings. These are mainly trio sessions with bassist
Reuben Rogers and drummer
Eric Harland, but on occasion tenor saxophonist
Mark Turner joins in, though his voicings are merely icing on the cake. Recalling giants like
Frank Emilio Flynn and
Ernesto Lecuona,
Goldberg beautifully renders the
Pablo Milanes song
"Cancion por la Unidad Latino America" with full grace in a classical sense and adds stark mystery to the title track and an upbeat film noir mode to
"The Rules." Many of these tracks are in waltz tempo and are pretty beyond simple chord structures, even dipping into serenity and for one ballad, placidity. But
Goldberg can't help shredding
Thelonious Monk's
"I Mean You" in a frenetic fever pitch, zooming along in atypical neo-bop fashion with
Turner during
"Aze's Blues," and working the six beats in four technique through the Latin montuno take of
Steve Wonder's
"Isn't She Lovely." Goldberg arrived on the scene during the decade of the 2000s, but by 2010 was firmly established as one of the more musical modern jazz pianists, as heard throughout on this excellent disc. ~ Michael G. Nastos
