Taylor Eigsti, Plot Amor, GroundUp Music ****

Pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, composer Taylor Eigsti grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and is appearing this week on the US East Coast with a septet that includes Julian Lage, the Blue Note guitar star, who is also on Plot Amor among a stellar collection of leaders. Here with 11 original Eigsti compositions plus one standard on an album co-produced with Josh Giunta who has a mixing engineering background, included among the guests are New Orleans trumpet icon Terence Blanchard most recently heard by this blog live in Herbie Hancock's band on stage in London last summer.

An album that includes strings with arrangements by Andrew Balogh, singer Becca Stevens guests on 'Look Around You'. And it is the Wayne Shorter tribute 'Light Dream' that features Blanchard, certainly a strong reason to absorb yourself in the Champion composer's feature on the Eigsti piece given TB's anthemic, plangent timbral storytelling ability and signature trumpet sound.

Eigsti's late mother Nancy wrote the lyrics for the powerfully soul-blues drenched original 'Fire Within' sung by Rolling Stones backing singer Lisa Fischer who is really great in a vocal that reminds us of the power and glory of hearing Bettye LaVette live. 'The Rumor' is the best of the more orchestrated tracks and there's strong input from members of Blanchard's E-Collective band in the rhythm section (their Live was a superb album if you care to dredge the 2-year-prior-to-first-COVID-Year memory banks). Vocals icon Gretchen Parlato - Lean In with Herbie guitarist Lionel Loueke last year was mighty - wrote lyrics for 'Beyond the Blue' in honour of Eigsti's mum and the elegy is another firm album highlight.

Plot Amor also includes an instrumental version of the 1940s Rodgers and Hart standard 'Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered,' with poet of the tenor saxophone Dayna Stephens delivering so well. Still in his thirties Eigsti's album Tree Falls on which Becca Stevens and Parlato also contributed won a Grammy in 2022 and this just issued latest once again proves his skill as a composer and virtuoso player who knows how to touch your soul and at the same time engage your brain. Taylor Eigsti, photo: publicity shot

Tags: reviews

Tributes to Jim Beard, the US jazz-rock fusion keyboardist and composer who has died at the age of 63, a player best known for his work with Steely Dan from 2008, include this from James Taylor keyboardist Larry Goldings: ''Rest in Peace, Jim Beard I wish I had known him better. I feel very connected to him musically. He wrote, recorded, arranged and produced some absolutely stunning music, in its sophistication and beauty. The world has lost a real heavyweight. My thoughts go out to his family and loved ones.''

Drummer Paul Wertico of Pat Metheny Group renown writes, also on social media: ''I'm speechless about the passing of Jim Beard, so for now I'll just have to remember the good times we had and great music we made together on the Pat Metheny Secret Story tours. Rest In Peace Jim.''

The Ridley Park, Pennsylvania - not far from Philadelphia - hailing Beard in 2007 won a Grammy as a featured performer on the Randy and Michael Brecker/WDR Big Band live in Leverkusen recording, Some Skunk Funk.

Jaco Pastorius biographer Bill Milkowski and author of Ode to a Tenor Titan writes: ''I still have my VHS copy of this Creed Taylor produced video from Jim's 1991 debut album, Song of the Sun. He was an eccentric, brilliant visionary with a quick, acerbic wit, wildly creative spirit and slightly subversive mind. A classically trained pianist, Beard studied arranging with Don Sebesky and studied piano with Sir Roland Hanna and George Shearing. As a keyboardist, he made key contributions to albums by Wayne Shorter, John McLaughlin, Pat Metheny, Michael and Randy Brecker, Eliane Elias, Peter Erskine, Victor Bailey, Wayne Krantz, Chuck Loeb, Dennis Chambers, Oz Noy and Steely Dan. He also produced 12 albums for Mike Stern and others for Bob Berg, Bill Evans and Didier Lockwood.''

John McLaughlin recorded Beard composition 'The Wait' which was a track on the guitar icon's 1987 album with Mahavishnu Adventures in Radioland.

Trumpeter Linley Hamilton also commented on social media: ''Maggie [Doyle, Linley's wife] and I are very sad to hear that the great jazz and fusion pianist Jim Beard has passed away. We had a great time with him and Jon Herrington in March 2020 when they stayed and played at Magy’s Farm. A beautiful musician and person.''

Author of the definitive biography on Wayne Shorter, Footprints, Michelle Mercer writes also on Facebook: ''We’re mourning Jim Beard, a brilliant, funny musician who wore his heart on his sleeve.'' Beard's albums as a leader included Song of the Sun (CTI, 1990) Truly (Escapade, 1997) and more recently Revolutions with Vince Mendoza and Metropole Orkest from the Netherlands in 2008.