Heroes + Misfits

Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition winner Kris Bowers brings together a variety of musical interests on his striking debut, Heroes + Misfits. Bowers is a product of classical and jazz training, but he’s also contributed to JAŸ-Z and Kanye West’s Watch the Throne, and has written for film. “Forever Spring” opens the album on an ambient note as Bowers spins out quietly dramatic acoustic piano lines amidst birdsong and subtle electronics. “Wake the Neighbors” moves back and forth between sections featuring Adam Agati’s dirty guitar and passages that evoke the pop-inflected jazz of Brad Mehldau. On “#TheProtester,” Bowers turns in an entrancing solo driven by the ace rhythm section of bassist Burniss Earl Travis II and drummer Jamire Williams. Singer Julia Easterlin, who evokes Björk, is backed by layers of her own backing vocals on “Forget-Er.” “Drift” features artfully clattering drums and nice work by saxophonists Kenneth Whalum III and Casey Benjamin. A brief solo piano piece (“First”) leads into the lovely and pared-down “Ways of Light,” which finds the extraordinary José James shining on vocals.