There are two kinds of romanticism in art - the private, dark-night-of-the-soul variety and a more public variety, large-scaled, though no less sincere. Where jazz piano trios are concerned, the influence of Bill Evans (the avatar of the former category) looms so large he obscures any alternative approaches. But that doesn't mean they're not out there. And this record is proof.

Pianist and arranger Alan Broadbent may have been born in New Zealand, but he's lived in Southern California for decades, and his brand of pianistic romanticism has the sweep and grandeur of Hollywood. Fans of Charlie Haden's Quartet West, a band that has made cds with Hollywood as the theme, will recognize and appreciate this quality. Listen to how large Broadbent scales the emotion in Harry Warren's underplayed "I Wish I Knew." It's worlds away from the inward anguish of Evans. That's unusual, because Broadbent employs many of Evans' most characteristic devices: the extended tags, phrase-ending curlicues and parallel single-note runs in each hand. Sometimes it's a bit much, like the heavy embroidery hung on the lightweight fabric of Lee Morgan's Latinate "Ceora" or the pretty but vacuous note spinning Broadbent uses to get through "Baubles, Bangles and Beads." It's not such a great song to begin with, and Broadbent and his mates (bassist and producer Brian Bromberg and former Evans drummer Joe LaBarbera) are at their best in quality material. So Jerome Kern's "Dearly Beloved" gets a nice reading, as does "With the Wind and the Rain In Her Hair." Good sound and thoughtful packaging, even if it could have used a proofreader (the composer of the title tune is misspelled as "A. Shwartz").