Marc Johnson - Shades of Jade / SHM-CD

Bassist Marc Johnson is perhaps best remembered as the last bassist for pianist Bill Evans from 1978 to his death in 1980. Here on Shades of Jade, Johnson’s third album for ECM, the bassist pays tribute to another great Evans band and bassist Scott LaFaro… The music here has the same kind of quiet intensity as its touchstone even if the group is larger – guitarist John Scofield, saxophonist Joe Lovano, pianist Eliane Elias and drummer Joey Baron round out the line-up. Johnson and Elias handle the composition responsibilities, both together and separately, and Elias’s playing really shines as she provides prodding accompaniment. … A wonderful expansion of Evans’s lyrical trio concept, Shades of Jade accomplishes everything Johnson could have hoped for.
Tad Hendrickson, Jazz Week
 
This lyrical exercise in small-band jazz features the kind of elegant, understated band you’d want to play if you were facing a firing squad who all happened to be jazz fans. Joe Lovano, vaporous as smoke and melodically wayward, is the saxophonist; John Scofield is on guitar; one-time Bill Evans bassist Marc Johnson and audacious drummer Joey Baron make up the rhythm section; and a fluidly imaginative Eliane Elias is on piano. Johnson and Elias wrote all the pieces, with Ton Sur Ton a standout for its lovely melody line and sly guitar harmonies. … Brazilian Eliane Elias, a photogenic samba singer whom the industry has tried to turn into a new Astrud Gilberto, proves what a class act she really is as a creative, somewhat Jarrett-like pianist.
John Fordham, The Guardian