https://www.allmusic.com/album/jade-visions-mw0000113734
AllMusic Review by Scott Yanow
The late pianist Dave Catney's second release for Justice was one of his finest recordings. One can hear touches of McCoy Tyner, Bill Evans, and Herbie Hancock in his style, but Catney had already largely gained a sound of his own. He interprets with great sensitivity (and with close attention to mood variations) a set of music dominated by obscurities, including Jerome Kern's "Up With the Lark" and Scott LaFaro's "Jade Visions." Working closely in the trio with bassist Marc Johnson and drummer Peter Erskine, Dave Catney (who takes a surprise vocal on "Lost in the Stars") shows himself to have been a strong and underrated improviser.
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Pianist Dave Catney undoubtedly had a career that was bright, promising, and exciting. His piano style alternated between lyrical cool and fiery swinging soloing with unwavering authority. No matter what the temperature—hot or cool—Catney's sonic style possessed an elegance and maturity that belied his youthfulness. On the 10-track disc "Jade Visions," his second project for the Houston-based Justice Records, he is joined by first rate veterans Peter Erskine on drums, and Marc Johnson on bass. The trio powers through Johnson's tumultuous composition "Waste Not, Want Not;" breezes through vibraphonist Gary Burton's wistful and beautifully titled "Gentle Wind and Falling Tear"; and closes the disc with Catney's lead vocal, a dulcet baritone, on Kurt Weill's and Maxwell Anderson's contemplative "Lost in the Stars." There is only one Catney original here, "Fool Moon," a vibrant, samba-like number that features heartfelt solos by the intrepid leader Catney, Johnson, and Erskine. A strong composer in his own right, Catney showcased tunes by renowned composers such as Jerome Kern, Harold Arlen, and Weill on Jade Visions", rather than spotlight his own. However, he never disappoints on his no holds barred covers of Kern's "Up With the Lark" and respected altoist Jackie McLean's uptempo, blazing "Dr. McLean." The Virginia native's original tunes, a bonafide treat, are more on display on his debut disc, aptly titled "First Flight", and he has a lovely, poignant solo piano follow-up cd to "Jade Visions" called "Reality Road", which unfortunately, but perhaps befittingly, was a metaphor for his courageous battle with AIDS, which claimed his life (AIDS-related complications, officially) in August 1994 at 33 years old. The jazz world at large seemed to have slept on the brilliance of Dave Catney, as he was essentially Houston, Texas based (playing regularly at the popular Cezanne jazz club there). It is encouraging, however, that "Jade Visions", his other two aforementioned projects, and the posthumously released "Window of Light," which is a compilation of sorts of the invigorating work released during his lifetime, are still available for listeners today. One can only imagine the wonderful work that Catney would be delivering if he were here today. "Jade Visions" offers a delicious slice of his rich, musical life. God bless Dave Catney and The Catney family.
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I confess I've thought more than once about the ambivalence that must have come over Marc Johnson, the brilliant young bassist privileged to be with Bill Evans during those final two glorious years, before being cast aside as an anchor without a ship. How appropriate that Johnson would be the undercurrent for a pianist such as Catney, and how cruel that once again he would witness the shining vessel sail away without him.
Catney's talent is more rooted in the genius of Evans' piano playing than numerous other pianists whose names are evoked with the predecessor's. He doesn't dig as deep into the keys as Bill, trace a melodic line quite as far in its narrative course, or provide quite the same richness of texture and harmonic complexity. But his improvisations are enchanting structures of gossamer, devoid of both the neo-classic, portentous experimentation of a Mehldau and the folksy, exhibitionistic romanticism of a Jarrett. If he died too young to have incorporated some of the darker gnomes that inhabited Evans' music, he nonetheless reflects more of the shimmering ethereal spirits of that music than any other pianist who comes to mind. And on the thrilling title track, his reverential minimalist approach resurrects living memories not just of Scottie at the Vanguard but of Bill's "Peace Piece."
