Joined by a fine cast of Argentine musicians, bassist Pablo Aslan, drummer Pepi Taveira, and bandoneon virtuoso Michael Zisman, Adrian Iaies displays a broad musical vision that stresses the connective global, hemispheric, and national melodic, rhythmic, and compositional ties that bind in solo, duo, trio, and quartet settings. As jazz critic Bob Blumenthal writes in the CD liner notes, [f]or Adrian Iaies, the signature musics of the United States and his native Argentina have coalesced into a mesh of structure and feeling that forms a distinct root system for his music. Of course, as the ten tracks aurally illustrate, the root of Iaies s music is the tango, that amazing blend of milonga, African, Cuban, Italian, and German song structures, instrumentation, and rhythmic motifs. The title track, and Wayne Shorter s enigmatic classic Nefertiti, feature Milesian muted melodicism of trumpeter Juan Cruz de Urquiza. Listen to Iaie s tango-centric treatment of standards like the intimate piano/bandoneon duo rendition of Thelonious Monk s Round Midnight, Michel LeGrand s and What Are You Doing for the Rest of Your Life, and you ll think that those songs were composed in Buenos Aires. And by contrast, Iaies s own works evoke far-flung places and spaces beyond his South American homeland. The boppish, Latin tinged Astor Changes swings with a bit of Harlem stride, while Mariposita grooves with a tempo reminiscent of Count Basie-era Kansas City. The funereal "Algun Dia Nunca Llega" is a distant cousin to a New Orleans Crescent City dirge, contrasted by the Django Reinhardt-like Gypsy waltz of "Valsecito Para Una Rubia Tremenda." The ballad "Sigilosamente" is a tribute to Duke Ellington, and "Juarez el Casamentaro" is another piano/bandoneon duet, in honor of Iaies s mentor, composer/pianist Manolo Juarez. Throughout the CD, Iaie s musicality exhibits the melodic economy of pianist John Lewis, the composing and arranging skills of Alberto Ginastera, and the genre-defying genius of Astor Piazzolla. The unique confluence of Adrian Iaies s musical world began in his hometown Buenos Aires, where he was born on November 4, 1960. Educated in the European classics and his native tango styles, Iaies later played jazz fusion in the eighties, and formed a band entitled Touch, which released a recording Ventanilla 16 in 1989 and La Lluvia es Sagrada in 1993. His first recording as a leader was Nostalgias Otros Vicios (EMI, 1998/2004), followed by La Tardecitas de Minton s (32 Jazz, 2001), Una Modica Plentitud (EMI, 2000), Tango Reflections, (EMI, 2000), Round Midnight y Otros Tangos (Lola Records, 2002), Las Cosas Tienen Movimento (EMI/2007), and Uno Dos Tres: Solo y Bien Acompanado (Phantom Sound and Vision, 2007). As Vals De La 81st & Columbus, proves, the music of Adrian Iaies, while firmly rooted in tango, is expansive and beyond category. It would do this music a disservice to hear it merely as tango jazz or any other manner of codified fusion, Bob Blumenthal writes. Musicians such as Iaies, Zisman and their partners who possess such elevated skills and convey such resonant emotions are up to something more universal, a sound that we may not have heard before, yet feels as if we ve known it all along.