*** Issi Rozen

HOMELAND BLUES

(Brownstone)

First there's guitarist Rozen's limpid tone, which seems at one with his articulation: the way he gets from note to note. Then there's the kind of self-generating improvised lines that have been the hallmark of all superb jazz players, from Armstrong and Reinhardt to Rollins and Metheny. Rozen's material, and his band, are with him every step of the way. That's why a Coltrane-inspired standard like Hammerstein & Romberg's "Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise" is as fresh as a daisy, chock full of rhythmic excitement.

On this, his second Brownstone CD, Tel Aviv-Brookline transplant Rozen moves more in the direction of combining musical elements from home with "world" jazz forms. Traditional melodies like "Shir Hanoded" get American jazz's harmonic reach. Rozen creates similarly inventive fusions in originals like "Mediterranean Samba" and "Late Night Waltz," and in the rhythmic complexities of the title track, where drummer Harvey Wirht's triplets drive the theme. It's a good deal: Rozen and fellow Israeli pianist Gilad Barkan indulge their nostalgia, and everybody in the band, including Wirht and bassist Dave Smallwood has, as Steve Lacy calls jazz pieces, "something to dig on."

-- Jon Garelick

(The Issi Rozen quartet plays the Phoenix/FNX Jazz Series at the Hatch Shell this Sunday, August 6, at 5 p.m. Call 450-8651.)