{"id":212,"date":"2005-10-26T01:05:00","date_gmt":"2005-10-26T08:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/?p=212"},"modified":"2005-10-26T01:05:00","modified_gmt":"2005-10-26T08:05:00","slug":"piano_trios_part_2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2005\/10\/piano_trios_part_2\/","title":{"rendered":"Piano Trios, Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jaki Byard, Sunshine of My Soul <\/em><\/a> (Prestige Original Jazz Classics). Byard, piano; David Izenson, bass; Elvin Jones, drums.
\nI wrote in a blurb for the 2001 reissue of this album, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Byard was one of the most disciplined and one of the least inhibited of all jazz improvisers.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d With Ornette Coleman\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bassist and John Coltrane\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s drummer, he spreads sunshine even as they hurtle headlong through space without guideposts in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Trendsition Zildjian,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d eleven minutes of total improvisation. The track is amazing even in the context of this amazing recording. Made in 1967, its music will always be new. No one has solved the mystery of Byard\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s murder in 1998 and no one has explained the mystery of his genius. Genuis is like that.
\nMike Wofford, Live at Athenaeum Jazz<\/em><\/a> (Capri). Wofford, piano; Peter Washington, bass; Victor Lewis, drums.
\nReviewing Wofford\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first album, Strawberry Wine, in 1967, I described him as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153an excellent piano player who is much under the spell of Bill Evans.There are some tracks on which Wofford’s individuality shows. His approach includes humor, a quality many musicians his age have avoided like the plague.” Thirty-eight years later, Wofford is still in the Evans tradition in terms of his touch, chord voicings, implied rhythms, and ability to generate a floating quality. But his individuality shows here on every track, as it has for decades. His mastery and, yes, humor, are priceless on Ellington\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Take the Coltrane.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Wofford is based in San Diego. This was recorded just up the road in La Jolla. His sidemen are two of New York\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s finest. They deserve to be in his company.
\nDave Peck, Good Road<\/em><\/a> (Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Play Stella). Peck, piano; Jeff Johnson, bass; Joe LaBarbera, drums.
\nHiring Bill Evans\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 last drummer and one of the leading exponents of the Scott LaFaro school of bass playing for this date, Peck clearly had no intention of disguising Evans\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s influence. From the pianist\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ethereal introduction of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Yesterdays\u00e2\u20ac\u009d through his composition \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The First Sign of Spring,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d which hints at Evans tunes, to the slowly decaying final chord of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153She Was Too Good to Me,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Evans hovers benevolently over Peck\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s stimulating session. The trio is beautifully integrated, sounding as if they had been working together night after night. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Just in Time,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153What is This Thing Called Love\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153On Green Dolphin Street\u00e2\u20ac\u009d are swingers. Peck is reflective in two of Ellington\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s loveliest ballads, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Low Key Lightly\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Star Crossed Lovers.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Good Road<\/em> seems to me his best work on records.
\nBobo Stenson, Goodbye<\/em><\/a> (ECM). Stenson, piano; Anders Jormin, bass; Paul Motian, drums.
\nTord Gustavsen, The Ground <\/em><\/a> (ECM). Gustavsen, piano; Harald Johnsen, bass; Jarle Vespestad, drums.
\nIn the lavish clarity of ECM\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sound, these CDs present impressive Scandinavian pianists. With Paul Motian as his drummer, Stenson, a Swede, would seem to be courting an Evans sensibility. Motian is too perpetually hip to encourage a return to those glorious days of yesteryear, although the trio comes closest to Evans in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Yesterdays.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Stenson has certain similarities to Evans in touch and harmonic voicings, but generally his work is more informed by Scriabin-like gravity\u00e2\u20ac\u201duntil the last piece. In Ornette Coleman\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Race Face,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d everyone scurries amiably and the pianist treats us to outr\u00c3\u00a9 intervals. Great fun.
\nFun does not come to mind in describing the work of Gustavsen. Beauty does. In the words of Guardian<\/em> reviewer John Fordahm<\/a>, the Norwegian \u00e2\u20ac\u0153likes space, silence and ambiguity.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d His music\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dreamy qualities have crossed him over into the feel-good, soft-jazz market, but his trio\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s playing has enough harmonic density, backbone and guts that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s never going to be mistaken for George Winston.
\nQuickly, then (I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stay up all night again), here are other piano trio CDs that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve allowed to move to the top of the stack:
\nPeter Beets, New York Trio, Page 3<\/em><\/a> (Criss Cross). Beets, piano; Reginald Veal, bass; Herlin Riley, drums.
\nFine young mainstream Dutch pianist. Third CD on Criss Cross. Getting better all the time.
\nJo Ann Daugherty, Range of Motion<\/em><\/a> (BluJazz). Daughterty, piano; Lorin Cohen or Larry Kohut, bass; guitar, saxophones, trumpet, trombone.
\nMs. Daugherty is from Missouri and lives in Chicago. There is only one trio track on her CD. The horns and guitar are all good, and so are her tunes, but that trio track, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Harold\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Tune,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is a gem. I had never heard of her when I put the disc on. I love surprises like this. Jo Ann Daugherty deserves\u00e2\u20ac\u201dno, we deserve\u00e2\u20ac\u201da trio album, pronto.
\nAlexander Schimmeroth, Arrival<\/em><\/a> (Fresh Sound). Schimmeroth, piano; Matt Penman, bass; Jeff Ballard, drums.
\nSchimmeroth is a young German living in New York. His sound is full-bodied, his timing and note placement exquisite. This is an impressive debut.
\nDavid Hazeltine, Modern Standards<\/em><\/a> (Sharp Nine). Hazeltine, piano; David Williams, bass, Joe Farnsworth, drums.
\nOne of the great pros among jazz pianists under fifty, always swinging, always satisfying.
\nHod O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Brien, Live at Blues Alley, First Set<\/a>, Second Set<\/a><\/em> (Reservoir). O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Brien, piano; Ray Drummond, bass; Kenny Washington, drums.
\nO\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Brien was active in New York in the fifties and remains an inspired exponent of the bebop style founded by Bud Powell. Drummond and Washington inspire him to some of his best playing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jaki Byard, Sunshine of My Soul (Prestige Original Jazz Classics). Byard, piano; David Izenson, bass; Elvin Jones, drums. I wrote in a blurb for the 2001 reissue of this album, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Byard was one of the most disciplined and one of the least inhibited of all jazz improvisers.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d With Ornette Coleman\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bassist and John Coltrane\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s drummer, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-212","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}