JAZZ ALBUM REVIEW : Tunes Loaded With Personality

*** Jeff Beal, “Three Graces”, Triloka Like pianist Kei Akagi and his band mate on this album, John Beasley, trumpeter-composer Jeff Beal is writing jazz with a decidedly modern bent, full of shifting rhythms and the kind of quirky twists that seem part and parcel of the present-day human condition.

Beal’s work is contemporary, but not in the sense that it’s rife with backbeat and electric instrumentation. This date, unlike his previous Triloka release, “Objects In the Mirror,” is in the mainstream tradition, tempered with a healthy dose of Beal’s wide-ranging compositional influences.

His trumpet work on “Jazz Habit,” though recalling Miles Davis in tone, is more sharp and biting than Davis’. His fluegelhorn work, especially on the moody “Prayer of St. Francis,” recalls Kenny Wheeler in its reserved tones and contemplative airs.

A like-minded rhythm section--pianist Beasley, guitarist Steve Cardenas, saxophonist Steve Tavaglione, bassist John Patitucci and drummers Vinnie Colaiuta and Dave Weckl--each bring a lot of personality to the session.

Colaiuta tones down his usual onslaught to add rhythmic shading and accent to “I Saw Isabella,” and Tavaglione plays with intelligence as well as strength.

Beal takes a solo piano turn on “Waltz For Mary,” a brief haunting coda that says more of Beal’s compositional skills than his keyboard abilities.

A pair of tunes, “Dizzy Spells” and “For Miles,” may acknowledge the strong influences these two giants may have had on the trumpeter, but “Three Graces” makes it apparent that Beal is very much his own man.