Though this new issue is credited to Akira Tana as leader, Moon Over The World was originally the second album by the Asian American Jazz Trio, and was first released in Japan in 1993. Hong Kong pianist Ted Lo replaces Kei Akagi from the group's first disc, Sound Circle. The performances on Moon Over The World offer attractive, thoughtful mainstream piano-trio music, longer on shapliness and refinement than on surprise, but benefiting from some unusual choices of repertoire. Lo contributes excellent arrangements of Chinese and Japanese folk tunes and pop songs; there are astute picks of rarely-covered tunes by Horace Silver, Jaco Pastorius, and Gene Bertoncini; and all three musicians chip in with good originals, of which the best is Reid's lovely ballad "No Place Is The End Of The World." The results are a listenable and enjoyable album, though not an especially memorable one.

— Nate Dorward
© 2004 Cadence