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Zachary Bartholomew has been active in jazz, both as a professor at Florida Memorial University, and as an on call session pianist for artists such as Dave Holland, Dave Liebman, Ira Sullivan and many more. “Balancing Act” is his first album as leader and it features ten of his original compositions. The music on here is modern post bop served up with complex compositions and arrangements that also leave ample room for solos. Although the CD credits might make you think this is a quintet, its actually closer to a piano trio, with saxophonist David Fernandez appearing on roughly over half the tracks, and trumpeter Benny Benack appearing on a couple. Zachary plays with a pronounced lyrical right hand in a tradition coming from Paul Bley, to Keith Jarrett and Brad Mehldau. The Mehldau comparison is furthered by Zachary’s leaning towards art pop meets modern classical passages that fall somewhere in between Philip Glass and Tony Banks.
Album opener, “Crazy Socks” is neo-bebop and contains one of Bartholomew’s more bluesy solos. This is followed by “Sunny Days Driven By’ with its grand sweeping piano passages that recall the Philip Glass meets Tony Banks sound mentioned earlier. “The Long and Winding Road” has nothing to do with the McCartney opus of the same name, but instead, the title implies a long compositional process that ends up with a driving syncopated ostinato that may remind some of Craig Taborn. Speaking of Paul McCartney, album closer, “Midnight Nefarity”, contrasts a section of hyper driving riffs with a descending art pop chord sequence that would have sounded right at home on the album, “Abbey Road”. “Hobo’s Lullaby” has a fast driving five beat rhythm, based on an Afro-Cuban bell pattern, that seeks to mimic a train roaring down the tracks. “Bring the Noise” has nothing to do with the Public Enemy track of the same name, but also uses Afro-Cuban rhythms matched with a hip-hop groove. In trying to avoid a tedious grocery list of every track, lets just say the rest are in that modern style that joins an eclectic approach to post bop with modern compositional arrangements.