Lisa Hilton: Naturally

She mixes and matches modes with familiar friends Rudy Royston/dr, Luques Curtis/b JD Allen/ss-ts and Igmar Thomas/tp, with the latter forming rich tones around the locking lines of Hilton and Curtis on a flowing dream of  “Carefree Chronicles”, while “Transcendental Tango” has Hilton and Curtis working up a sweat on a dance floor with a smoky low ceiling. Hilton also asserts herself when leading the boogaloo with some Bobby Timmons-gospel fisticuffs on “Nocturnal”, and saunters into deep recesses with Allen’s sax on the prismatically reflective “Once Upon A Blues Day”

In more spartan settings, Hilton in trio format uses pastel’d chalk to evoke a melodic portrait on “Scenes From A California Dream” and has her fingers walk through Givenry Gardens on a prismatic “Thinking Of Somewhere Else”. Even more intimate is when Hilton creates light through a stained glass window on her solo rendition of Bill Evans’ “Peace Piece” as you can almost smell the flickering candle.

Hilton plays with no synthetic fibers, as her album title states, all natural materials that give warmth and comfort, breathing perfectly.