Remarkably, this is the superb UK pianist Liam Noble’s first solo piano album in 20 years. The composers here range from Monk to Zawinul to Kenny Wheeler and Elgar, but Noble’s wide-ranging erudition and independence of character inform every cover. His original Major Major is a percussive pulsation on damped strings within which Abdullah Ibrahim-like song harmonies seem to stir, and Wouldn’t It Be Loverly is a whimsical upper-register speculation, and then a stride-piano swinger that makes a quietly vivacious visit to the tune only a minute from the end. There’s a rapturous tenderness and at times an almost Satie-like fragility to Monk’s Round Midnight, and Noble dazzlingly juggles unusual metres on Joe Zawinul’s Directions, and comes close to a bluegrass-banjo sound and Keith Jarrett’s gospel-stomping mood on the folk song Six White Horses. Body and Soul, covered so often, is a unique interpretation emerging from airily abstract reflections. Admirers of improvisation and the piano arts will be fascinated, but Liam Noble is expressive enough to reach far beyond those loops.
