My review of pianist George Colligan's The Endless Mysteries, today at All About Jazz.

While music fans often think of the artists they love as gifted people whose lives are consumed by the pursuit of their art, all-too-often they ignore equally important, if seemingly more mundane, needs: making a living, perhaps having a family...things to which most people aspire. With music sales on the decline, most musicians pay the rent by touring and, in some cases, teaching, but for those who've failed to achieve greater recognition, that needn't imply they're anything less than top-tier.

Count pianist George Colligan amongst that group of musicians who may support themselves and their families through teaching and touring with bigger names, but are as deserving of attention as any with whom they play. That Colligan is a triple threat—not just a terrific pianist, but a great drummer (amply demonstrated on pianist Kerry Politzer's overlooked Labyrinth, Polisonic, 2005), and trumpeter of worth (on his own Runaway, Sunnyside, 2008)—only means a musical breadth that makes him an even more valuable recruit for artists like Don Byron, who enlisted Colligan in the studio and on the road for his Junior Walker tribute, Doin' the Boomerang (Blue Note, 2006).

Colligan has also been a key member of veteran drummer Jack DeJohnette's touring band, heard in Ottawa in 2012 and on the download-only Live at Yoshi's 2010 (Golden Beams, 2011). DeJohnette returns the favor by playing on Colligan's The Endless Mysteries, and the chemistry built over the past four years is in clear evidence throughout this set of ten Colligan compositions, where the pianist's intrinsic virtuosity ranges from cool to simmering to flat-out boiling over.

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