Reflections On Duke

Jean-Yves Thibaudet is a whiz with Ravel and Debussy--his albums of those composers' piano works have received endless praise. This disc of Duke Ellington arrangements is in some respects a follow-up to the Ravel and Debussy discs, and in other respects a sequel to his recording of another jazz giant, Bill Evans. Thibaudet's Ellington inhabits a soundworld that is sometimes languid and dreamy, as in "Prelude to a Kiss," and other times driving and seemingly unstoppable as in the opening track, "Jubilee Stomp."