On "Wherever You Go, There You Are," pianist and composer Michael Kocour offers a kind of casual mastery and urbane carriage that makes the demanding solo piano idiom sound as natural as breathing. His models are Hank Jones, Tommy Flanagan, Cedar Walton and Barry Harris. Kocour has internalized their values - storytelling, melodic integrity, refined harmony and voice leading, spontaneous orchestration and swing - without sounding like a clone of any of them. Originally from Chicago and a regular sideman with James Moody & Benny Golson, Kocour has been director of jazz studies at Arizona State University for the last decade. (Mark Stryker) •"...one of the most sophisticated pianists in jazz." - Howard Reich, The Chicago Tribune