Bobby Few has been revered as a modern jazz pianist, but mainly in Europe where he has lived for decades since expatriating. Stateside he was caught working with Booker Ervin, Albert Ayler, and for many years in the ensembles of Steve Lacy, and after Lacy's passing with Avram Fefer. While playing solo is nothing new for Few, this effort reveals him in varied layers of emotionalism, dynamic structure, and pacings. These are not languid, breezy, simple piano interpretations of mainstream jazz. Instead, intricately woven tapestries lined by bright colors, and as the title of the CD indicates, searching in that light for the corresponding shadows that paint broader, darker strokes. The rolling triplet arpeggios of From Different Lands reflect stark multi-cultural elements, the pretty Dreams offers cascading and flowing lines, while introspective and wry themes asking more questions than answers lead into an animated, confrontational passage of the near-15-minute What You Doing? The more identifiable themes are given, through Few's vast experience, on the repeated mirror-like Thelonious Monk off-minor bop welded onto the melody of Hello My Baby during Lacy's Flakes," and the sweet waltz Enomis, a parallel tone poem to Danny Boy. The nearly 20-minute title track goes everywhere, not letting up for a minute, and is a display of not only stamina for the 60-plus-year-old Few, but a display of his ability to edit volume levels while building skyscraper-lofty plumes of phrases and rhythms. An engaging, largely compelling and always inventive effort, Few consistently proves why he should be in the upper echelon of modernist improvisers that always seek new horizons. ~ Michael G. Nastos, Rovi

1		Bells
2		Flakes
3		From Different Lands
4		Enomis
5		Lights and Shadows
6		What You Doing?
7		Dreams