After graduating from Berklee, the Japanese pianist Makoto Ozone ended up in the capable hands of vibraphonist Gary Burton and was part of his quartet for a while. After that he regularly made records, which were particularly appreciated in Japan and therefore awarded. In recent years, Ozone has developed a great love for the trio, first with bassist John Patitucci and drummer Peter Erskine, later
… with bassist Kiyoshi Kitagawa and drummer Clarence Penn. For the album Pandora Kitagawa was replaced by James Genus. The music composed by Ozone for the album has a great inner beauty, not least because of his study of and profound interest in classical piano music. Then good post bop jazz is created. That does not alter the fact that when his former Berklee fellow student Branford Marsalis joins two songs, just as beautiful free jazz is the result. (RM) _more
