A beautiful document of the late, great pianist Joe Albany – music put together in support of the film Low Down, and packaged here in a really lovely format! The movie is a poetic look at Albany – an important west coast player from the bop years onward, but one who never reached his full potential, due to a lifetime of heroin use. Yet during his career, he certainly touched plenty of hearts and ears – with recordings that begin in the 78rpm generation, and stretch right up to his final years – almost every one a masterpiece of melancholic piano, with these blue undercurrents that often make Joe's music very distinct. Both the film and this set get at that quality, and intersperse original performances by Albany with a few tracks by contemporaries – like Coleman Hawkins and Max Roach – as well as a few musical bits by Ohad Taylor, who scored parts of the film in a very sympathetic manner. Titles include "Angel Eyes", "Lush Life", "Everybody Knew But Me", "Lotus Blossom", "Barbados", and "AB Blues" by Joe Albany – plus "AJ Blues" and "Daahoud" by Ohad Taylor, "Deeds Not Words" by Max Roach, and "Think Deep" by Coleman Hawkins. (Jazz, Soundtracks) CD