While this is only Tania Gill's second album under her name (the first arrived 12 years ago), she's a fixture on the Toronto jazz scene. She specializes in keyboard instruments, usually piano. And she's comfortable in meditative and manic moods.

Tania Gill Quartet Disappearing Curiosities (self-released)

That means this album goes many places at once, and a lot of the direction is supplied by the interplay between Gill and Lina Allemano, the trumpeter who is the lone returning member of Gill's ensemble. Their improvisational variations on Gill's themes are often breathtaking, even more so in the way that they seem to be talking to each other the entire time.

Gill performs and records with a wide array of artists, and she has brought that breadth to this album. The pieces here aren't cohesive. Gill doesn't really have a stock style, even in her themes, and that does lead this album to jump all over the place. The inventiveness of the ensemble is exciting, and I don't think I want Gill to become any less creatively restless.

Rather, I hope she continues to ramble on. I imagine that there are no typical performances, either, which is one of the cool things about jazz. Gill and her mates have recorded an ambitious and accomplished set, one that improves with repeated listens. This one cooks.

Jon Worley