Gwilym Simcock, Perception

Twentysomething British pianist Gwilym Simcock has been linked with enough class acts to seem like an elder statesman already, but this mostly enthralling set (produced by Jason Yarde) is the first under his own name. Saxophonist Stan Sulzmann and guitarist John Parricelli join a band that also plays opposite Charlie Haden at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall tonight. Simcock is an awesome original, but he's a creative listener, too. There are echoes of piano bands including EST, the Bad Plus and Brad Mehldau's trio, and an infusion of South African jazz melody, but the elements are twisted and polished into dazzling new designs. The idiom-shuffling A Typical Affair develops as a storming piano improvisation that would make even Herbie Hancock and Simcock's UK model, John Taylor, jump. But Simcock's classical backup makes him a remarkably sensuous ballad player, too. If this is just the beginning, the coming years defy imagining.