The songs on Triptych Myth's The Beautiful (Aum Fidelity) play out like a series of cinematic scenes. The jazz trio, led by Cooper-Moore on piano with Tom Abbs on bass and Chad Taylor on drums, starts the record in a traditional manner--the piano and drums chatter back and forth a few measures before the bass enters and the whole group locks into a groove. But they soon abandon the standard jazz format to follow a curve more like the crescendo of a dramatic tale. The romantic piano motif of "Pooch (For Wilber Morris)" conjures images of a ballerina stepping across a room, while the odd contrast of the frenetic drumming keeps the track from becoming sentimental. The slow, creeping rhythm of "Last Minute Trip Part One" could be the soundtrack for a caravan's slow march in a long-forgotten desert epic.

Cooper-Moore has been involved in the creative music scene for over thirty years, although he has often been overshadowed by collaborators such as David S. Ware. After a frustrating European tour in 1981, he destroyed his piano with a sledgehammer and a match. He redirected his energy first towards childhood music education and then to performing on a collection of hand-built instruments. In the early 1990s, Cooper-Moore returned to the piano as a member of William Parker's group In Order to Survive. With the Triptych Myth, he has assembled his first working jazz group in decades.

Cooper-Moore has perhaps been inspired by the time he spent scoring theater and dance productions. The Beautiful, however, is undoubtedly a jazz album. Cooper-Moore crafts a haunting ballad on "Frida K. The Beautiful." Chad Taylor fires the upbeat "Poppa's Gin in the Chicken Feed" with a funky intensity. The album ends with Cooper-Moore tapping out single notes--a peaceful coda to the frenzy of creativity that came before. The final notes hover in the air unresolved, waiting to be fulfilled by Triptych Myth's next recording.

Also posted at A Frolic of My Own.

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