Pianist Micah Thomas has done nothing but rise since hitting the scene, earning a spot in fellow young star Immanuel Wilkins’ band, playing with artists as varied as Ambrose Akinmusire, Tyshawn Sorey, Walter Smith III, and Joshua Redman, and releasing four solo albums, each more ambitious than the last.
From the sound of Lucid, his fifth album, all his prior work has been building up to this. While in the past he’s worked in the melodic side of post bop, pushing the boundaries, here he’s taking a step firmly into the avant-garde realm. Joined by Wilkins on alto sax, Kalia Vandever on trombone, Thomas Morgan on bass, and Lesley Mok on drums, Thomas spends the first half of the record acting as if he’s playing his instrument for the first time. That’s meant as a compliment – rather than do what his training and experience would have us expect, he pokes and prods at the keys, reveling in the sounds they make, and encouraging his cohort to do the same. It sounds random at first, but as the record unfolds, pieces like “O,” “Frontier,” and “Box Heart” connect into a tapestry of improvisation and advanced technique that call to mind such masters of matter manipulation as Myra Melford or the Art Ensemble of Chicago – no mean feat.
Once Thomas hits the midpoint, things alter. “Interface” reintroduces melody into the mix, but it’s not a repudiation of what came before – just an extension. That and “Logic” bring the piano into the harmonic realms of bop, while the rest of the ensemble continues its path above, below, and around the song structures. Thomas leaps back into that end of the pool with the nearly thirteen-minute “night,” once again treating his instrument and, indeed, the standards of Western harmony as mere suggestions, looking for the chords in between the notes, engaging with his partners as equals. Vandever offers counterpoint, Wilkins drones, Mok clatters, and Morgan adds a nearly subliminal presence that lets the tune float as often as pulse. That leads into “spacetime” and “final,” beautiful ballads featuring Vandever and Wilkins that use restless rhythms and wandering melodies to avoid anything remotely resembling sap.
Thomas has never been afraid to push himself beyond the borders of his self-imposed realm. But this is less bumping his shoulder against the door than jumping out the window, a leap of faith strongly rewarded on, and by, Lucid.
