Like Pat Metheny, the late pianist and composer Esbjörn Svensson became one of jazz’s rare commercial successes without lowering the bar. He could write instrumental music that sounded sung, and his EST group combined the spontaneity of jazz with the power of rock. In this live tribute, Finnish piano prodigy Iiro Rantala leads a Svensson-inspired quintet in a celebration that includes EST hits such as Dodge the Dodo and From Gagarin’s Point of View, vocals by the accomplished Viktoria Tolstoy (a regular Svensson collaborator), and a finale on John Lennon’s Imagine. Rantala’s title piece catches its subject’s classical grace, pop-ballad lyricism and EST’s close-knit polyphony with guitarist Ulf Wakenius and bassist Lars Danielsson; Tolstoy sings Love Is Real with a yearning, country ballad feel; Elevation of Love and the irresistibly hooky Dodge the Dodo reflect the seductive sound of both Svensson’s group and Metheny’s. If Tolstoy’s finales are at times bombastic and Imagine switches moods too restlessly, this remains, for the most part, an exciting and sensitively fitting accolade.
