It's as if two pianists are involved, Taborn drawing on the complex energy of his piano duos. WHITEHEAD: Gradually, that left-hand figure becomes loud and insistent, an autopilot undercurrent to a blizzard of right-hand counter lines and cross rhythms. (SOUNDBITE OF CRAIG TABORN'S 'SHADOW PLAY') A nine-minute arc of the sweet 'Shadow Play' pivots on a repeating left-hand figure that starts gently, ripples on calm water. He's both improvising in the moment and standing apart, taking the long view. It's not, I think, that Taborn knows where he's going way in advance, but that he recall where he's been. WHITEHEAD: He brings that whole sequence back one more time at the end of the piece, 11 minutes later. WHITEHEAD: From that bit, he moves on to another episode, but a few minutes later, he circles back to recreate that leisurely opening but in compact form, squeezing all the emptiness out, an improvisation edited. (SOUNDBITE OF CRAIG TABORN'S 'BIRDS TEMPLAR') The whole sequence takes more than a couple of minutes. The suite begins with an endless, heavenly trill, eventually joined by a very slow, somber descending line that ends with Rachmaninoff grandeur in the bass. WHITEHEAD: Taborn's 'Birds Templar' offers a grand example of an instant composing. At one moment, he moves from a sequence of bright staccato chords to softer ascending lines, but with a fancy patchwork transition going back-and-forth between the two, wrapping up the one as he previews the other. Most of the music on Craig Taborn's album 'Shadow Plays' unfurls in long, episodic suites. WHITEHEAD: Taborn likes to sustain distinctive textures like that for their own sake and in contrast to other textures. At one point, he hammers a single note for a couple of minutes till piano twangs like a one-string banjo. He'll use piano as a percussion instrument, as improvisers do, but not necessarily in a thick, slabby way. WHITEHEAD: Craig Taborn has a refined touch at the keys, but he's not always genteel.

(SOUNDBITE OF CRAIG TABORN'S 'NOW IN HOPE') Sometimes they unfold like traditional pop songs with short motifs and variations.

Taborn practices the art of instant composing, of making spontaneous pieces so clear and shapely, they can sound worked out in advance. KEVIN WHITEHEAD, BYLINE: Craig Taborn, from his lyrical and adventurous new album 'Shadow Plays,' improvisations recorded live early in 2020. (SOUNDBITE OF CRAIG TABORN'S 'CONCORDIA DISCORS') Kevin has a review of Taborn's first solo album in a decade, and he says, like the previous one, it's a stunner. In recent years, Taborn has recorded in acoustic and electric trios and in piano duos with peers Kris Davis and Vijay Iyer, among other projects. Our jazz critic, Kevin Whitehead, says Craig Taborn is one of the most inventive and resourceful pianists in improvised music today.

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