Indicum

Swedish pianist Bobo Stenson has collaborated with trumpeter Don Cherry, been a member of The Charles Lloyd Quartet, and released several albums as a leader. 2012’s Indicum features an excellent trio with bassist Anders Jormin and drummer Jon Falt. A sensitive solo piano rendering of Bill Evans’ “Your Story” starts things off. (Evans is clearly a touchstone for Stenson.) The group original “Indikon” spotlights Falt’s highly inventive drumming, as piano and bass groove along. A deft cymbal workout by Falt opens “La Peregrinacion” by Argentinean composer Ariel Ramirez, while Stenson brings a lyrical touch to the lovely melody. “Ermutigung,” by politically informed German singer/songwriter Wolf Biermann, receives a slow, soulful reading, and George Russell’s “Event VI” incorporates both blues feeling and a thicket of quiet-yet-wild percussion. A light and loose swing animates a take on Danish composer Carl Nielsen’s “Tit Er Jeg Glad,” and Indicum closes with a version of the choral piece “Ubi Caritas” by Norwegian composer Ola Gjeilo.