Label : Artist | Year : 2005

With her album Is It So!, Joelle Khoury confirms her status as a formidable composer-pianist with a distinct and multi-colored voice. Her work is clearly steeped in the post-bop jazz tradition, but singular. She has a dramatic and whimsical persona that resonates a bit with Carla Bley, another jazz original.

Melodic lines that often push against the grain of the changes, creating intriguing looping chromatic patterns. Many of the pieces feature complex layered grooves, ambiguous meters, and driving bass lines.

Khoury's ensemble, In-Version, plays admirably throughout, with an obviously high comfort level with the compositions that produces a satisfying combination of ferocity and looseness. As a pianist she is very much her own musician. It IS so: Joelle Khoury is unquestionably an artist whose work deserves wider recognition.

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