(Post-Bop) Lewis Porter - Beauty & Mystery - 2018, MP3, 320 kbps

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious," stated Albert Einstein. In doing so, the great physicist philosophized about understanding and seeking beauty as an ideal with greater dimensions and depth. That quote earns its place as the central thesis of this date, being that it's explored and exploited time and again through the music. Porter put together the headiest of bands to examine this conceptual notion—a trio with bassist John Patitucci and drummer Terri Lyne Carrington—and the results are every bit as stimulating as one might expect.
Variety carries the day here, but a palpable sense of cohesion makes everything fit together. There's an agreeable solo piano prologue inspired by the opening notes of Jean Sibelius' Symphony No. 2, a deeply spiritual take on Curtis Mayfield's "People Get Ready" with Patittuci's resonant tones speaking to the soul, a contrafact on "Cherokee" (dubbed "Chasing Lines") that swings and kicks in all the right ways, a "Dazzling Raga" using an exotic scalar pattern as its DNA, and a peaceful waltzing send-off in the form of "Day Is Done." Add to that Porter's Coltrane triptych—the in-the-swing-pocket "Blues For Trane And McCoy" and the choppy and melodically incisive "Birthplace," both featuring guest saxophonist Tia Fuller, and the bass-centric "From Giovanni To Jimmy" nodding simultaneously to Patitucci's heritage and the great Jimmy Garrison—and you start to see how many different ways this music can move.