Heart has everything to do with this fine, final disc from Tony Williams and company. Firstly, Williams's unexpected death shortly after the completion of these sessions broke many hearts in the jazz community who knew him as one of the best players on the scene for years. But more to the point, the album has a heart filled with the joy, passion, and pain of life, beating to Williams's sensitive pulse. While the thrilling opening track, trio pianist Mulgrew Miller's "Promethean," is a hair-raising ride of mythological proportions, the main body of the album is decidedly romantic. The lovely title track meanders like a walk in dappled sunlight, with Miller, Williams, and bassist Ira Coleman engaged in a whimsical conversation. The psychedelics of Lennon-McCartney's "The Fool On The Hill" here take on a pleasant samba pattern, playing out with mature introspection rather than abstract expressionism. It is the maturity and expressiveness of this work that makes the emotion of "Body And Soul" all the more powerful. Williams never showboats with pyrotechnic solos, but lets his drumming serve the work overall. Here is a talent who deserves to be remembered most fondly.
