Face to Face

When Makoto Ozone was a student at the Berklee School of Music in 1981, he asked professor Gary Burton for private lessons. The poll-winning vibist was so impressed by the young pianist that he invited Ozone to join the Gary Burton Quartet. Since then the pianist's youthful facility has gained a more mature sense of phrasing, and he has become a major jazz star in Japan. They reunite for their first unaccompanied duo album, Face to Face. Such a collaboration inevitably recalls Burton's landmark duo recordings with Chick Corea, but Ozone has a very different touch than Corea--less Latin and percussive and more classical and fluid. Where Corea is likely to go for the exclamatory chord, Ozone is more likely to go for the quick, smooth arpeggio. Ozone and Burton both love to run through chord changes in brisk, yet seemingly relaxed phrases which manage to touch on most of the possible notes in any harmony. These seamless, graceful lines are often extended at great length and then traded off to the comping partner. They tackle two Thelonious Monk tunes, three Ozone originals, South American numbers by Antonio Carlos Jobim and Astor Piazzolla, standards by Rodgers & Hart and Benny Goodman, and Steve Swallow's "Eiderdown." One might wish for some dirty low notes or harsh chords to offset all this dizzying lyricism, but there's no denying the duo's superb command of jazz romanticism. --Geoffrey Himes