Hyperpiano? Rid your mind of the involvement of too much coffee at the piano stool. Denman Maroney plays his customised style of prepared piano on Nourishments the Mark Dresser quintet’s latest. "Hyperpiano” involves using such tools apparently as bowls, bells, mallets and even knives in approaching the piano from the inside out. It’s not hyper as in frenetic at all at least not here on Nourishments. With avant bass icon Dresser and Maroney the quintet is completed by alto sax wiz Rudresh Mahanthappa, trombonist Michael Dessen and sharing the drum role Tom Rainey, on four tracks; and there’s Michael Sarin (known for his work with the much missed Thomas Chapin), the remaining three. Mark Dresser most people know for his work with Anthony Braxton and records such as John Zorn’s highly influential Spy vs Spy (surely that shouldn’t have been made in the 1980s?). The LA-born 60-year-old jointly wrote ‘Not Withstanding’ the first track here with Mahanthappa, who he also plays with in a trio called Mauger, a band completed by Gerry Hemingway. The second, ‘Canales Rose’, is a 12-tone row written after “an incredible meal” Dresser has dedicated to a chef while ‘Para Waltz’ reconnoitres around a waltz rhythm with microtonal bending a feature. Telematics, “the interface of computers, communication and performance”, or as it has also been dubbed by certain wags “online jamming”, makes its presence felt on the album with ‘Canales Rose’ first performed in California via the ether between Irvine and San Diego. Title track ‘Nourishments’ was also originally planned with telematics involved. The remaining tracks are ‘Aperitivo’, which has been featured on an earlier album; ‘Rasaman’ written for sitarist Kartik Seshadri; and the “multi-metered, multi sectioned” ‘Telemojo’. Dresser says the album is “centred around a personal approach to the jazz tradition and song form,” and after several solo bass CDs the music here, his first quintet Clean Feed the label releasing it points out, in almost 20 years, is about “the collaborative and improvisational power of the band," something Nourishments makes plain throughout.

Mark Dresser above right in a telematic performance