The British/Bengali pianist Zoe Rahman, a Mobo winner in 2012 for her rootsy world-folk album Kindred Spirits, seems to have been focusing her thoughts on more intimate music in recent years. She toured with Courtney Pine a a popular ballads-devoted duo, worked with the double-bass star George Mraz and now release her first solo piano album of originals and jazz evergreens, with first takes producing most of the forceful and tender results. Rahman’s bass-stamping, McCoy Tyner-influenced rhythmic power surges through Red Squirrel, and her lullaby Fast Asleep strikes a characteristic balance of warmth and strength. The Rabindranath Tagore song Kar Milono Chao Birohi is an anthemic melody over deep, rolling chords, and Epicentre is an impressionistic, free-rhythmic original. Duke Ellington’s The Single Petal of a Rose is casually wrapped in graceful embroideries, Abdullah Ibrahim’s Sunset in Blue rocks with the South African legend’s youthful vim, and These Foolish Things combines a jaunty swing piano feel and an intensifying bluesy clout. Dreamland is a powerful testament to this fine pianist’s growing authority.
