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Gaea Schell is a pianist, flautist and occasional vocalist who has performed with Nancy King, Richie Cole, Marcus Shelby, Albert “Tootie” Heath and many others as she globe trots from the US to Italy, Cuba and Mexico. Her latest album, “In Your Own Sweet Way”, features Gaea working with a small group that includes Jordan Samuels on guitar, John Witala on bass, Greg Wyser-Pratte on drums, Carlos Caro on percussion and Marco Diaz guesting on trumpet and percussion on one track. Schell counts Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson and Eliane Elias as pianistic influences, and the expected post bop language is there, but Gaea has some unique phrasing up her sleeve as some of her melodic improv statements tend to stretch beyond the standard form to create some ear grabbing quirky surprises. Schell does play both flute and piano on here, but she does not double track herself, she is either playing one instrument or the other.
About two thirds of “Sweet Way” falls into the Latin jazz category, including album opener, “Cava dell’Isola”, which sports a montuno that sounds a lot like WAR’s classic, “Spill the Wine”. Gaea’s approach to Cuban style piano is not real strict as she often floats above the precise rhythms. On “El Picacho”, guest pianist Marco Diaz plays the montuno in the more exact Cuban traditions, and Schell responds with the declamatory flute style common in Afro-Cuban jazz. Elsewhere on this album there are several relaxed Latin ballads and soft Bossa style numbers. All of the Latin tracks are Schell originals.
We also get a couple of swingin post bop tracks, including “Sweet and Lovely” and “Perplexity” , and Gaea gives us two vocal numbers as well. Schell has a ‘cool’ vocal delivery as she sings original lyrics that she wrote for her boyfriend on the album’s title track. All of these tracks are good, but there is one hidden gem that might slip by you, that is her almost neo-classical composition, “Danza Nocturna de Flores”, this one really shows Schell’s writing skills and makes it apparent that maybe she should try some work in this direction.
