Stanley Cowell Trio: Illusion Suite (Luminessence Series)

On Illusion Suite, “the charms are quiet”, as Down Beat put it, reviewing the album in 1974. “It creeps up on you and hits you in the ear in subtle ways. Things you hadn’t noticed keep jumping out. This album most directly and accurately pictures [Stanley Cowell’s] fresh keyboard approach”. On the album – Cowell’s only recording for ECM – the pianist’s trio is completed by bassist Stanley Clarke and Jimmy Hopps on drums. Together, the players fashion a wide-flung idiomatic net that puts Cowell’s compositional vision first – improvisation as means for exploration but also for sculpting an unmistakable identity, a thing Cowell had never done with as much clarity prior to this session. In his liner note, accompanying the Luminessence vinyl reissue of this album, pianist and writer Ethan Iverson observes how “Cowell leaps from one idea to the next, tackling diverse genres with gusto” and calls the album “a fearless and experimental excursion that embraces multitudes.”

Re-issued as part of ECM’s Luminessence series, "Illusion Suite" arrives in a tip-on gatefold jacket with new liner notes and an archival photograph.