Stan Tracey - Sound Check

(Resteamed Records)

This double album is something of a family affair, in which the veteran pianist teams up with son Clark on drums for a fairly free-form set of duets on the first disc, and then adds bassist Andrew Cleyndert for a more straight-ahead trio set on the second, focusing mainly on music by two of Stan’s major influences, Monk and Ellington.

The pianist is now in his mid 80s, but is still playing with impressive energy on top of his accumulated musical wisdom, and if we don’t learn much that we didn’t already know about him from this outing, it’s a very enjoyable addition.