Yakov Okun

Amongst the international fraternity of improvisers who play in Russia, the abilities of the Moscow-based pianist Yakov Okun are anything but a well-kept secret. At 38, Okun “who leads a strong all-Russian trio with Makar Novikov on bass and Alexander Mashin on drums, and also sidemans with the profound trumpeter German Lukyanov “has toured both in Europe and his homeland with a multi-generational cohort of luminaries, a short-list of which includes Lew Tabackin, James Spaulding, Eddie Henderson, Craig Handy, Mark Turner, Donny McCaslin, Jimmy Greene, Alex Sipiagin, Gary Smulyan, Larry Schneider, and Jeremy Pelt.Okun displays similar prowess and scope throughout his Criss-Cross debut, a powerful trio recital with New York A-listers Ben Street on bass and Billy Drummond on drums that spans three Okun originals and five songs drawn from the less-investigated corners of the jazz canon. Though they had just a single rehearsal to absorb the material, the trio interacts in equilateral triangle fashion, spurred by the leader, a bebop devotee who doesn’t play licks, inhabits a broad timeline of vocabulary with deep soul, a sense of humor, and an endless will to swing, and executes his ideas with crisp authority, nuanced touch, and imaginative flair.