***1/2 Frank Carlberg

THE CRAZY WOMAN

(Accurate)

Finnish pianist Frank Carlberg has been mapping new directions with pinpricks of cool clarity since arriving at the New England Conservatory some 10 years ago. His collaborations with singer Christine Correa, his wife of Portuguese-East Indian extraction, render new meaning from Robert Frost's title "Fire and Ice." Here they explore crystalline song forms set to poems with undercurrents of madness and aberration. On Gwendolyn Brooks's "We Real Cool," Carlberg tinkles Messaien-like patterns, Chris Cheek blows "cool" tenor sax, and Correa sings with barely contained restraint. On the title track, she's impractically, brilliantly "certifiable." These are among the more provocative poetic settings in jazz since Steve Swallow and Sheila Jordan collaborated on Robert Creeley (Home, ECM) back in 1979.

-- Fred Bouchard

(The Frank Carlberg Quintet, with Christine Correa, Chris Cheek, bassist Ben Street, and drummer Kenny Wolleson, plays the Regattabar this Tuesday, April 8. Call 876-7777.)