This was creative mood-setting music — and solo piano — that, technically speaking, uses vamps, scales, intelligent note choices, keyboard sprints and clusters, and clearly defined yet roving pedal points, to get Zeitlin's complete and composite message across. Speaking artistically and tonally, it was like listening to McCoy Tyner or Joanne Brackeen and feeling their inner chant-like states.

The dizzying tempo Zeitlin took on Sonny Rollins' "Oleo" was something new; and the tune's blues tonality inspired Zeitlin to lay down an interesting, abstracted, slow boogie woogie pattern within the general fast rush of his improvisation.

But things moved on.

Wayne Shorter's "Deluge" functioned as a strong rhythmic springboard for Zeitlin's call-and-response chording and the smooth unzip of his right hand. Later, he swept his fingers across the piano's inner strings and in "Pulsar" his soft mallet blows turned the piano into a dulcimer that gets struck.