Jason Moran - Gangsterism on the Rise (mp3)

This is your jazz blues on drugs.

Jason Moran plays it loose, takes liberties with form...hell, he perverts form, and lets it fall into an angry mess of notes, or so it seems. But then he sews it back together. Or, so it seems. You get lost, the way you do with Thelonius Monk, though Moran is neither as cool nor as subtle, but what he lacks in coolness he makes up for in boldness. He throws the heavy hand on the keys and lets the notes struggle with each other, and holds for that extra moment so they can't escape, but then he gives them release with a clean chord. It's like Sonic Youth for the piano, and sometimes damn near as loud.

Here he has his way with the blues (from Jasonmoran.com):
Jason Moran - Jump Up (mp3)

And here he just plain has his way:
Jason Moran - Gangsterism on the Rise (mp3)


Both tracks are from his beautifully weird February 2005 Blue Note release, Same Mother.