Enamigo Reciprokataj

Brittany Anjou has explored everything from Ahmad Jamal to Bikini Kill at the piano on three continents, between roiling original compositions inspired by Bartok, Stravinsky, Red Garland and McCoy Tyner. It makes great artistic sense that the title of her first major piano trio album and the five-part suite contained within is in Esperanto, the "constructed" international language. Just as Anjou's English-language title "Reciprocal Love" becomes Enamigo Reciprokataj (En-äh-mee-joh Reh-sih-pro-käh-tye), so too does the mainstream language of the piano jazz she loves get translated into something strikingly different and psychically original. Jazz fans will detect familiar influences in what Anjou calls her "inner trio dialogs" featuring bassist Greg Chudzik and drummer Nick Anderson. Anjou's songs, all originals, comment on the art of the trio even as they bask in its glories. With its minimalist repetitions, free-jazz-meets-Rachmaninoff flourishes and electronic framing, there's a trippy sense of expansiveness in the music. Her compositions are both dreamlike and bracingly wide-awake. Enamigo Reciprokataj (En-äh-mee-joh Reh-sih-pro-käh-tye) is the first of a trio of thematic language albums Anjou plans on releasing.