$9.00
This reassembling of Roberto Magris’ world-class Europlane ensemble marks the 20-year reunion between the Italian-born pianist-composer-arranger and the powerhouse Hungarian tenor saxophonist Tony Lakatos. Both had appeared together on the group’s 2005 debut, Check-In, which revealed their mutual love of smoking bebop with an edge. That Soul Note outing garnered favorable response from Stateside critics for its relentlessly swinging energy and slightly left-of-center sensibilities. As Jack Bowers wrote in this All About Jazz review of Check-In: “Even though these gentlemen are virtually anonymous and reside on the far side of the Atlantic, musical talent is an equal opportunity donor that overlooks ethnic and geographic boundaries. There are 58 minutes of superlative cutting-edge jazz on this album, and they’re well worth hearing.”
But perhaps British critic Don Mather hit the nail on the head when he wrote: “This album is a must for anyone who likes modern mainstream and is a lesson to many of the contempo