Back & Forth

Ten delicious new tracks of Jazz and Blues from this pianist with the added bonus of trumpeter Mike both on three of them.

"Wrapped in an attention-grabbing cover by Fane Flaws, these deft, sometimes gently swinging 10 pieces confirm not just Key's abilities at the piano but what a smart, economic writer he is.

There's an astute off-beat shuffle to The Green Bay Spaniard (with Booth), classic low-slung blues on the appropriately entitled Slow Right Down (which cries out for lyrics) and One Stop Drop eases into its eight minute-plus with a gorgeous, deliberately half-formed melody over arco playing by Fieldes before it quietly establishes its direction and momentum with the entry of Sawyer.

Various aspects of the blues are explored here as befits the predominant piano-bar-after-10pm mood, and pieces like the measured One Step Ahead of the Blues (again with Booth playing a clean, unadorned melodic line on flugel) are engaging for their understatement." - Graham Reid, Elsewhere