In an ideal world Marc Copland would be better known. To put it another better way, Copland is known enough for his elegant touch, for his work with John Abercrombie, Gary Peacock, Ron McClure, for improvising at the highest level. ''Fame,'' often a distorting mirror if present at all in jazz anyway with due apologies to Lennon and McCartney, may only be here, there and rarely fair.
And I Love Her will not change the world but it may change the way we listen when we are all just forgetting how. With the pianist are Drew Gress on bass and Joey Baron playing drums it is listening in two ways: to each individual player; to the ensemble. The ensemble of course tops everything when improvisation in the crucial wider sense of group play is factored in.
On the more obvious tunes here and there are some extremely well known tunes that aspect is not easy to detect given the way famous tunes cloak further detail. Copland has a way of expanding the themes, I suppose he gives them space most of all. Give this space in your listening time. SG
Joey Baron, above left, Marc Copland and Drew Gress. Photo: John Rogers