THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER

Josh Nelson
Let It Go
(Native Language ***)

New Recordings
Sunday, October 28

Pianist Josh Nelson is that rare breed: a Los Angeles jazzman.
Just 28 at the time of this recording, Nelson trained at Boston's Berklee College of Music and was a semifinalist in the 2006 Thelonious Monk Piano competition. He gigs a lot with the promising singer Sara Gazarek. And while his work is reminiscent of Keith Jarrett, Brad Mehldau, and a long list of other worthies, he sounds like no one else exactly, which in jazz means that you have achieved something.

This debut recording has its film-score moments. Playing with bassist Darek "Oles" Oleszkiewicz, drummer Matt Wilson, guitarist Anthony Wilson, and tenor saxophonist Seamus Blake, Nelson shows a cool, clean and melodic style; he delivers open-hearted stuff that's occasionally whimsical and includes listeners in his musings.
"Abandon Post" is a graceful, autumnal kind of jazz, while the title track is oddly electric but still tuneful and even danceable at times.

-- Karl Stark