Drummer/composer/educator
Tyshawn Sorey
returns with pianist
Aaron Diehl
and bassist
Matt Brewer
, the trio that recorded the standards set
Mesmerism
(
Diehl
also played on the drummer/composer's live
Off-Off Broadway
with
Greg Osby
). Aptly titled
Continuing
, it offers tunes by and in tribute to late jazzmen
Wayne Shorter
,
Ahmad Jamal
, and
Sorey
's one-time mentor and teacher,
Harold Mabern
(the album is dedicated to his memory). The exception is
Matt Dennis
' "Angel Eyes." Aside from the personnel,
and
couldn't be more different. The earlier recording marked the trio's debut -- they rehearsed for the first time hours before recording --
emerges from the collective's confidence gained playing live. This is a piano trio, speaking as one, not soloists playing together. This is ensemble music meant to showcase communication and emotion.
Shorter
's "Reincarnation Blues" was composed for and recorded on
Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers
'
Buhaina's Delight
in 1963. The jaunty hard bop classic is driven by the frontline horns. Pianist
Cedar Walton
merely comps until his brief solo. Here,
's dark minor chord forcefully initiates a slow, swinging blues. He frames the lyric in minor voicings as
Brewer
punctuates them;
dances around them imaginatively on hi-hat, ride cymbal, and snare. Following
's elegant blues solo,
adds softly played dissonant notes in call-and-response.
Jamal
's "Seleritus" originally appeared on 1958's live
Portfolio of Ahmad Jamal
, and was resurrected for the following year's
Jamal at the Penthouse
.
TST
's version is an abstraction. Prodded by circular hi-hat rhythms,
forgoes
's delicacy, favoring bolder chord voicings in establishing a forceful presence the rhythm section responds to. At the three-minute mark,
lays out double-timed, syncopated breaks.
bridges harmonics between pianist and drummer, creating an alternate lyric. Increasing the tempo, the pianist exhorts his bandmates with strident chords.
then drives with funky carnival rhythms and Latin-infused swing. The long, glacially paced "Angel Eyes" is spectral, spacious, and crystalline --
's piano initiates a procession as
accents with single notes before embarking on a tender solo.
Mabern
's "In What Direction Are You Headed?" was composed for
Lee Morgan
's final eponymous album. A fingerpopping exercise in space age soul-jazz, it begins with
's funky breaks as
flirt with blues. At two minutes in, it's a punchy swirl of frenetic interplay. At five minutes in,
claim the foreground with a fat, propulsive, circular vamp.
, in the upper register, layers on percussive lyrical accents. After eight minutes, the trio acquits an astonishing exercise in interlocking, hard-angled vamps, grounded by
's NOLA second-line beats. This remarkable version captures
's gospel, blues, and soul roots, reframes them in exciting 21st century post-bop, and illuminates their influences on
's composition. With
's trio gets deep and wide, but performs without artifice. They present a brilliantly pointillistic, polymetric, authoritatively evolved language for jazz piano trio. ~ Thom Jurek