This is indeed a curious and wonderful debut album by one of Italy's hottest young jazzers. The Dream features Nico Morelli, a pianist who has absorbed through his powers and in his blood all the stylistic innovations from Art Tatum and Fats Waller through Cecil Taylor and Lennie Tristano to Paul Bley, Keith Jarrett, and Bill Evans and has come up with his own, particularly Italian brand of lyric pianism. Some would call this mainstream jazz but they would be stupid. It should be, but it's not. Accompanied by American bassist Marc Johnson and drummer Roberto Gatto, Morelli weaves a dreamy tapestry of lyric lines and thoughtful harmonic passages all his own. Morelli's tone is round, warm, and full of depth. The set opens with a gorgeous mid-tempo ballad called "Settembre" and Morelli focus is intense as he guides it through mode, intervals, and harmonic changes while keeping a firm sense of the rhythmic invention in the tune. Also, Gatto's "Bobcat's" is notable for its hot melody and scorching tempo. A straight-ahead rhythmic drive precedes an ostinato bassline and Morelli's piercing melodic line which accents the fours and creates a turnaround for the piece to enter into the blues, which it does, like a wailing Art Blakey number. There is a fine reading of Dave Brubeck's "In Your Own Sweet Way," as well. The original composition is only a jump-off point, though, for everybody in the band to become four-traders by the time the bridge rolls around and then the solos. The rules of engagement here are high the way Morelli and Johnson go head to head; it's a wonder Gatto can hold the rhythm to an anchor they can remember to come back to. Finally, Morelli's own "Skies of My Land," a Morelli original, offers a keen sense of the pianist's sense of melodic and harmonic invention. It's an elegiac tune, droopy and elegant and nuanced with Johnson's arco bass playing. Gatto's brushes caress the clock as the warmth of the seven-note theme is articulated and then striated to compensate for a harmonic interpolation and a variation by Johnson and Morelli until they return, ever simple, ever beautiful, to the fray of the original melody. This is a hot debut by a very inventive and outrageously gifted lyric pianist. ~ Thom Jurek