Antonio Ciacca

Lagos Blues

Saxaphonist Steve Grossman cut his teeth on Wayne Shorter’s replacement in Miles Davis’ band, and went on to become a hard bop virtuoso in the early 70s. Grossman taught one of his star pupils, pianist Antonio Ciacca, to start with the blues. Ciacca, now director of programming for Jazz at Lincoln Center, enlisted his mentor on an album inspired by Ciacca’s teaching gigs in Lagos, Portugal, a karmic circle ending by a blue sea. This instrumental album shows sophistication and musicianship on every track, but I still find it accessible. In the liner notes, Ciacca relates a story about plunging into a too-cold ocean in Lagos and writing the incident into the title track. Listening to drummer Ulysses Owen’s brushes, we hear the gentle surf, then Ciacca’s own piano and Grossman’s sax, shocked by the cold, before the piece Grossman’s own “Take the D Train,” is a pun on both Billy Strayhorn’s classic “Take the A Train.” Duke Ellington’s signature tune, and that the New York City D train stops at Jazz at Lincoln Center. The song energetically rattles and bops into a terrific drum solo before pulling into the station and closing with a sigh. Perfect. Ciacca’s sensitive piano on Grossman’s lovely ballad “Nicoletta” highlights how silly jazz can get without losing any ground to edgeless, generic mood music.