Partly Sunny

With his working trio augmented with the great clarinettist Anat Cohen, saxman Troy Roberts and the colourful percussion of Robert Quintero, Venezuelan pianist Silvano Monasterios has given us an album that is exuberant and visceral, as well as personal and considered.

It might strike as a paradox, but sometimes the brilliance of certain inventions can be measured by how obvious, how commonplace they seem. The music of Silvano Monasterios is so easy-on-the-ear, so elegantly structured, and has such a casual, lived-in feel that it takes a bit to catch on to how sophisticated his work truly is. It's only after a while that one notices the harmonic turns, the storytelling soloing, or his rhythmic vocabulary, especially his discreet use of traditional Venezuelan styles.

'Partly Sunny' is Monasterios' second album for Savant, and his choices suggest that he feels no need to accommodate any conventional expectations about how Latin jazz should sound. Whatever someone might argue to be some essence of "Latin," is here integrated into the overall sound.

Personnel: Silvano Monasterios (piano & keyboards), Anat Cohen (clarinet), Troy Roberts (saxophones), Jonathan Dadurka (bass), Rodolfo Zúñiga (drums), Roberto Quintero (percussion)