PELT, JEREMY - Jeremy Pelt, The Artist (Sealed) (CD)

Composing music inspired by painting dates back as far as the 12th century (Hildegard of Bingen) and, in Jazz, Duke Ellington’s “Degas Suite” comes to mind along with Branford Marsalis’s “Romare Bearden Revealed.” But on his new album, Jeremy Pelt may be the first jazz artist to examine the relationship between music and sculpture. The five-movement “Rodin Suite” muses not only on works the French sculptor August Rodin left us, but how his art might have evolved if he were still with us today. Added to Victor Gould, Vicente Archer and a few other of his “regs,” Pelt has added the guitar of Alex Wintz, the mallet percussion of Chien Chien Lu and the exotic percussion of Ismel Wignall for an ensemble sound capable of delicacy and color as well as full on modern jazz shouts. A thoughtful and thought-provoking album recording from, you guessed it, Jeremy Pelt, the artist.