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BILL EVANS, A SIMPLE MATTER OF CONVICTION (Verve). It's always refreshing to listen to a fellow who believes that songs—not sounds—are the basis of all music. Pianist Evans takes such familiar standards as Stella by Starlight and My Melancholy Baby, and by graceful, deft accenting, restores their sharp and spice-fresh lilt. One of his best is a spirited flirtation with Star Eyes, in which he woos the melody in the key of C before taking it off to dance in E-flat. Part of the zestfulness of the album is due to Drummer Shelly Manne and Bassist Eddie Gomez, who at 21 already has the world on his strings.
ORNETTE COLEMAN, THE EMPTY FOXHOLE (Blue Note). Any recent Ornette set is a many-faceted multi-instrumented emotional assault on the senses. Out of his alto comes resentful sadness in the title tune; from his violin wails an out-of-key nightmare symphony in Sound Gravitation; his trumpet drives an impatient bleating note down Freeway Express. In Zig Zag he plays his alto cool. But coolest of all is his precocious drummer. Would you believe Ornette Denardo Coleman, age ten?
MILES DAVIS, MILES SMILES (Columbia). Miles the man is seldom seen to smile, but his music is another thing. Something very like joy breathes through the far-out trumpet track of Orbits and his modal romp through Dolores. A quiet delight ripples out chorus by chorus from the ballad Circle, deftly paced by Pianist Herbie Hancock, while Tenorman Wayne Shorter spirals moodily around the core of Miles's lyric. Throughout the six original Miles tunes, Drummer Tony Williams expertly helps build the mood and Bassist Ron Carter has a sure feel for the note that under lines the swirl of chords.
DUKE PEARSON, SWEET HONEY BEE (Blue Note). For those who like their listening smooth, clean, and swinging in the mainstream, Composer-Pianist Pearson offers a well-wrought melody in impeccable taste. Sweet Honey Bee is breezy, while After the Rain is a cloudy, contemplative tune. With the felicitous exception of the freewheeling Sudel, Pearson's usually ebullient sidemen, James Spaulding on alto and flute, Joe Henderson on tenor and Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, tailor their considerable talents to his tight weave.
CHARLES LLOYD, FOREST FLOWER (Atlantic). Aptly titled is Forest Flower, for the music pushes up softly and lyrically at first, then blossoms in a crescendo of effects as Lloyd's tenor sax bobs and bends. In full petal, Flower fragments into dazzling, disturbing psychedelic sounds, only slowly to resolve back into gentle normality. An inventive percussive sound is created by Pianist Keith Jarrett, who holds down the piano strings of the notes he is playing with one hand while striking the keys with the other.
MIKE WOFFORD, STRAWBERRY WINE (Epic). A first record in which Pianist Wofford ranges from traditional bop phrasing to more modern—or at least farther out—voicings. Whether in his meditative, impressionistic probings on Moment, his frolicsome display of technique on Steeplechase, or his Bill Evans-like rendering of I Know Your Heart, Wofford is well worth meeting.