There is no doubt that some of the most interesting music emerging from the current European jazz scene is from piano trios. Perhaps it is because so much jazz history has been created by trumpet and saxophone that today they ‘sound’ rooted in jazz's past and weighed down by tradition. Somehow, the piano has escaped this kind of musical typecasting, not least because its broader tonal palette suggests a range of limitless possibilities that the one-note-ata-time trumpets and saxophones cannot. The Finnish pianist Kari Ikonen makes this point with eloquence; in the right hands the piano can look backwards as well as forwards without surrendering its contemporary purpose. How else can you get away with a performance of ‘Giant Steps’ or ‘I Fall In Love Too Easily’ today without the kind of invention and musical legerdemain that might otherwise result in date-stamped improvisations that do not go beyond our accumulated knowledge of countless performances of these songs, already internalised from recordings and live performances? Maybe the answer lies in whether the pianist has his own conception at a rhythmic, harmonic and melodic level that makes you want to engage with the music, rather than just contemplate it. Of course, this may be true of other instruments too, but the broader musical resources offered by the piano make this impression more immediate. Ikonen has an original approach, whether it be in the melodies of centuries old Armenian folk songs or African rhythms, Bill Evans-like rootless harmonies, or minimalistic trance his work here that suggests the Ozella label have discovered a pianist of considerable potential.