The singular mission of Denny Zeitlin continues with Precipice, the recorded document of a concert in January, 2008 at Ralston Hall, Santa Barbara, California. The experience is at once predictably exquisite as it creates a state of a type of suspended animation, floating with utter weightless abandon, as composer and pianist, Zeitlin flies over the edge of its proverbial cliff seduced by the thunderous cascade of music. This is how the music builds up to that frenetic quantum energy by the time Zeitlin reaches the middle of John Coltrane's "Fifth House," the final theme of Zeitlin's magnificent version of "What Is This Thing Called Love." The build up to "Fifth House" features some of the most majestic and ingenious improvisation on record. From an exquisite cadenza through the melodic invention of the main body of the piece, Zeitlin reigns supreme. His touch is impeccable. His ideas rush like the rumour of a raid. His invention is unstoppable as he plays phrases inside out and lines that appear to ascend melodic mountains then drop suddenly as the lines fade into oblivion.

Throughout the program, Zeitlin does something else with verve and splendor: he swings like the wickedest cat since