John Lewis, Evolution II - 52m 57s

Tracks & Durations

1. The Festivals	4:14
2. One! Of Parker's Moods	3:54
3. December, Remember	6:58
4. That! Afternoon In Paris	6:07
5. Cain And Abel	6:53
6. Come Rain Or Come Shine	5:02
7. Trieste	4:16
8. Django	5:24
9. Sammy	4:09
10. What Is This Thing Called Love?	5:52

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Review

When vibraphonist Milt Jackson passed away in 1999, the Modern Jazz Quartet's nearly half-century career ended. Pianist-composer John Lewis, the MJQ's co-founder and musical director, released a sublime solo piano CD, Evolution, just before Jackson died. And Evolution II is Lewis's first post-MJQ project, the second of the three-CD series in which he revisits several of his classic compositions. Lewis performs in a Kansas City-style quartet setting with the articulate drummer Lewis Nash, guitarists Howard Collins and Howard Alden, and bassists George Mraz and Marc Johnson. Lewis's timeless elegy "Django" starts here with a new intro, which segues into a streamlined piano solo, which melds into its trademarked melody. The bouncy beat of "The Festivals" is a dancing retake of Lewis's "In a Crowd," and "December, Remember" recalls the sacred sonorities of "In Memoriam." With "Come Rain or Come Shine," Lewis's spare, lyrical pianism comes to the fore, and his wonderful "One of Parker's Moods" elaborates on his magnificent 1948 piano solo on a classic piece of Bird's blues, "Parker's Mood." This spontaneous, crystalline collection leaves us anticipating John Lewis's next stage of evolution, just as it reminds us why the MJQ had such lasting power. --Eugene Holley Jr.

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