Jazz de Ville - Easy

Easy is the right word. Smooth, unhurried, mostly instrumental jazz that never shows off. You'll hear Bill Evans trio work, Chet Baker's vocal sides, and Dutch singers like Laura Fygi who built a career on that soft-focus sound. The ECM catalogue shows up too: Tord Gustavsen, that whole Nordic school of playing three notes where others play thirty. It's background music in the best sense. Piano, brushed drums, a bass player who knows when to shut up. Nothing flashy. Nothing here demands your attention either, which is exactly why it works. And there's no playlist whiplash. A set might drift fr…