Anne Sajdera: New Year

When San Francisco Bay Area pianist and composer Anne Sajdera traveled to Prague in 2014 to visit with family members that she’d never met, finding new musical partners wasn’t part of the program. But it happened just the same as she encountered two world-class players in trumpeter Miroslav Hloucal and alto saxophonist Jan Fečo. The pair is featured on New Year, an enjoyable post-bop collection of songs recorded back in California. The tunes are mostly by Sajdera, with a few by Hloucal and one traditional Roma piece arranged by Fečo. Even with a changing cast of bass players and drummers and various guest stars, including tenor saxist Bob Mintzer on the title track, the music remains consistently swinging and absorbing. A fine soloist and generous accompanist, Sajdera has a brightly propulsive style at the keyboard, distinctly modern and harmonically astute. Hloucal shines on his own Butterfly Effect, which also features a lovely piano solo by Sajdera. Changeling is also by Hloucal. His thoughtful opening solo leads right into a bouncy piano solo, followed by a rather laid-back alto solo by Fečo. Sajdera’s regular trio with bassist Gary Brown and drummer Deszon Claiborne is heard on two of her originals. The first is Treasure, the most ambitious piece of the set. Her European friends lay out in favor of trumpeter Erik Jekabson and alto saxist Lyle Link. Rita Thies, on flute, and Joyce Lee, overdubbing violins and cellos, add fresh colors to this calm and relaxed ballad. The other song to feature her trio is Bright Lights, which also includes Jekabson and Link on a straight-ahead up-tempo number that swings hard with some of Sajdera’s best playing on the disc. Fečo’s arrangement of It Depends on That fits right into the modern jazz ethos of the session, as the horns play and repeat the melody over the gently churning rhythm section. Sajdera goes it alone on the brief Even the Sun Sets, a peaceful ballad that sets the stage for the finale. Sajdera’s Azul was the title track on her first release in 2012, and this graceful samba is reprised for this album’s only location recording, ending the disc in style. The satisfying New Year offers further proof that music really is the universal language. Bijuri 2083; Miroslav Hloucal (tp, flgh) Erik Jacobson (tp, flgh on 3,6) Jan Fečo (as) Lyle Link (as on 3,6) Bob Mintzer (ts on 1) Rita Thies (fl on 3) Joyce Lee (vln, clo on 3) Anne Sajdera (p) Dan Feiszli (1,2,4,5,7,9) or Gary Brown (3,6) (b) Jason Lewis (1,4,5,7,9), Alan Hall (2) or Deszon Claiborne (3,6) (d); Berkeley, CA, & Oakland, CA (8), no dates specified; 1.Pictures/ 2.New Year/ 3.Treasure/ 4.Butterfly Effect/ 5.Changeling/ 6.Bright Lights/ 7.It Depends on That/ 8. Even the Sun Sets/ 9.Azul; 46:57. www.bijurirecords.com