Rambles.net by Chet Williamson

The Reese Project is indeed a family affair, made up of flautist Tom Reese (who composes the songs), Kirk Reese on piano and Laurie Haines Reese on cello.  The other members are ... You might think from the instrumentation that the Reese Project is oriented to chamber jazz, but this CD will set you straight. The Reese Project is everything from blues (the concentration here) to bop to funk, and in each style they are more than adept and quite frequently sublime.

The album starts with a funky, down-home groove, but then there's a complex chord that lets us know we're listening to JAZZ, and the flute comes in, warm and fluffy as a new puppy. Because of the fact that there's no reed to bend, I've always felt that it's difficult to get much passion from a flute, but Tom Reese proves the exception, working wonders with just a column of air, changing that warm puppy into a junkyard dog when the spirit moves him.  He's got great chops and can play lightning fast, but also knows when to slow down and let the emotion carry him. Kirk Reese on piano is his equal, as his first solo proves. Block chords lead into some elegant single-note right-hand work, and the level stays high through the CD. 

The title track, a duet between Laurie Haines Reese and guitarist Bobby Brewer, is a glorious piece of music, and whether or not it's jazz depends on how broad your definition is.  Mine is VERY broad. Still, this has more to do with Bach than bop, with interweaving lines between cello and guitar. It has a stark, spare, minimalist sound, with rich dissonances that slowly resolve themselves. A guitar/cello duet isn't something you expect in a jazz album, and its appearance here is in startlingly beautiful contrast to the rest of the music. Jazz is, after all, about surprise, and too often it's unsurprising. Not in this case.

"Blue Etude" more than fulfills the promise of the Reese Project's earlier work. It's a fine hour of beautifully recorded jazz that offers creative compositions, tight performances and eye-opening surprises. And that's what the best jazz is all about.

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