New CD reviews: Take That, Jesse Stacken, Pierre Boulez

Jesse Stacken, "Helleborus" (Fresh Sound New Talent)

Jazz holds up to every kind of methodology. "Helleborus," the scintillating and often beautiful new album by pianist Jesse Stacken, involves more than one, with two distinct approaches in the intention and the execution.

On its face, the album is a collection of nine original tunes, ranging from the interior to the expansive, gracefully illuminated by a smart acoustic quartet. Only upon a closer look does a procedural back story emerge: These pieces came about during a yearlong "weekly composition project" initiated by Stacken in May 2012. Working according to a strict schedule, he wrote a new piece every week, posting a home recording — along with the score and, often, a dash of contextual insight — on his website, jessestacken.com.

Some of the earliest of those compositions — such as "Give," an ethereal ballad built around intervallic thirds, and "Hidden Solitude," inspired by Olivier Messiaen's diminished scale — found their way onto this album. Others came from later in the game, when Stacken had stopped thinking about études. "Cork Soles" is a postbop number with a sly, prowling bounce; the title track, one of the last in the series, proceeds almost as an elegy.

It's hard to say whether these nine tunes, out of a possible 52, represent the best of Stacken's output. What's clear is the quality of his cohesion with saxophonist Tony Malaby, bassist Sean Conly and drummer Tom Rainey. At every turn on "Helleborus," the ensemble plays with gusto, coherence and license, heeding the framework without ever sounding hemmed in.

NATE CHINEN, New York Times

Pierre Boulez and various orchestras, "The Complete Columbia Album Collection" (67 CDs, Sony Classical)

His Beethoven Symphony No. 5 seems to be conducted by a Martian, although his Handel "Water Music" isn't bad and Wagner's "Wesendonck Lieder" is exquisite. Boulez's superb ear for sonority makes his Debussy/Ravel/Stravinsky recordings seductive standard-setters.

Generally, the sense of adventure and discovery makes many of these recordings preferable to his more sedentary Deutsche Grammophon outings, particularly with the explosiveness he brings to modern works — his own and others'.

David Patrick Stearns, Philadelphia Inquirer

Take That, "III" (Polydor)

It's tough for boy bands to grow older gracefully in the public eye, especially ones as big as Take That was in the '90s. However, it seems that Gary Barlow, Mark Owen and Howard Donald have found a way on their first album as a trio, following the exits of Robbie Williams and Jason Orange. Although the current single "These Days" does recall the pure pop of Take That's heyday, much of "III" feels more like Coldplay, especially the dramatic "Freeze" and "Portrait," while "Give You My Love" serves as an homage to another famous trio, the Bee Gees.