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Bill Mays, Summer Sketches (51:54) 
Palmetto 
PM-2070 
2001 04 03 

There's beauty in simplicity, and that's the governing logic on pianist Bill May's first 
Palmetto CD (his 11th as a leader). The concept - songs about summer - is simple. So's 
the lineup - Mays, Martin Wind on bass, Matt Wilson on drums. Summer 
Sketches is a soothing piano record, but don't let the placidity fool you. There's a lot 
of improvisational heft in this trio's ruminations. Mays delivers tightly focused bop 
phrasing and post-Bill Evans harmonic coloration on tunes like "Summer Night," "Indian 
Summer" (in a loose 5/4), and "Summer Serenade." (The chirping-cricket sound effects 
that begin "Summer Night" may be a little silly, but big deal - they're over in a jiffy and 
don't come back.) The ballads, "Estate" and "Once Upon a Summertime," are models of 
grace and rapport. And "The Things We Did Last Summer," a piano/bass duo with Wind 
bowing the melody, jumps along with an implied stride feel that breaks up the album's 
prevailing impressionist mood. 

Each trio member contributes a tune, and sure enough, it's these three tracks that contain 
the album's hippest moments. If the album has one flaw, it's that it doesn't include more 
of this kind of original music. (In this regard, the summer theme is a limitation: how 
many summer songs can three guys write?) Mays's "Fireflies" is brisk and playful, 
moving from fast swing to free in a short four minutes. Wilson's "(Gotta Go To) Summer 
School" is a slow minor-blues shuffle replete with the kind of quirkiness the drummer is 
known for. And Wind's "Early August," perhaps the album's finest specimen, is a 
flowing, even-eighth piece distinguished by a row of syncopated, ascending chords 
played in rousing unison by the full trio. It's class. ~David R. Adler



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