Pianist/composer and American expatriate Eric Watson’s Silent Hearts is a seductive yet difficult CD. The trio’s playing is so sublime, so inward, that it takes a long time to get a deep sense of the music’s emotional sweep. With Ed Thigpen’s dancing brushstrokes caressing Mark Dresser’s ghostly bass lines and Watson’s orchestral approximations, Silent Hearts lures you in like a faint voice in the dark, especially on the reflective “The Bystander” (co-penned by Linda Sharrock) and starry “Sisters Take Sides.” But Watson’s poetic compositions sound like memories of wistful dreams that linger in the air, leaving haunting emotional impressions but never make lasting melodic statements.
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