'One Sky'
Ryan Cohan (Motema Music)


Ryan Cohan mixes music as much as he blends instruments on his album" One Sky." The recording is named after his five-part suite that bears the subtitle "Poems for Humanity." It is performed by a sextet featuring Cohan on piano and then a mix of drums, bass, tenor sax. bass clarinet and flugelhorn for the most part. Some of those players double on other instruments such as trumpet and soprano sax. That creates a rather common small-group jazz sound that changes in tone constantly. The band on the suite features such well-known players as saxophonist Bob Sheppard and bassist James Cammack and produces thoughtful playing that is structured, but still has enough freedom to be lively. The pieces range in title from "Into Being" to "Hope," and ultimately bear a sense of brightness and hope. The other five tracks on the album are Cohan originals, except for Cohan's solo offering of Billy Strayhorn's "Lush Life." The four non-solo pieces use the shifting sextet, too, with extra percussionists thrown in. It is a lively, well-done album.

-- Bob Karlovits

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