Tip the piano player

brad mehldau

Cheese

quote:

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Originally posted by Jeff Anderson:
One of my favorite types of music is jazz - piano trio format... the frequently mentioned Keith Jarrett, Bill Evans and, soon, I hope to be able to include Fred Simon, whose disc is my next planned purchase ... Please offer additional suggestions for great piano players, especially in the jazz trio format.

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Jeff, profuse thanks for including my name in that exalted company. To quote Wayne and Garth, "I'm not worthy!"

More suggestions:

as already mentioned, Brad Mehldau

Fred Hersch

Lyle Mays (anything, really, but especially his trio album Fictionary with Mark Johnson and Jack DeJohnette)

John Taylor

"The Timekeepers", featuring Oscar Peterson and Count Basie, is sublime. Bass, drums, Basie on electric piano and Peterson on acoustic piano.

I really want to like Jason Moran but despite seeing him twice recently solo and with Greg Osby he somehow misses the mark with me.

Liam Noble, a local lad, his new CD is really good.

John

Dave McKenna is awesome, if you can find his stuff. My favorite of his is "This is the Moment" (aka The Piano Scene of Dave McKenna), a trio recording from 1959.

Dave McKenna

Jay

I agree about Dave McKenna.

You should also check out the late great Michel Petrucianni, especially for his interpretations of Ellington material.

Kevin

(PS also Abudullah Ibrahim - formerly Dollar Brand)

As always, Nick, thanks for the kind words.

And thanks for the recommendation. I had a listen to the samples from Achirana and dug it a lot.

Thanks to some recommendations on this thread I have been listening to:

Jessica Williams "Blue Fire"
Jessica Williams "Jessica's Blues"
Lyle Mays "Fictionary"
Peter Erskine "Time Being"

Great stuff ..... both J Williams discs have the incredible Mel Brown on drums. I have been fortunate to see Mel live many times, during much of the '90's he was in Portland trios with Leroy Vinnegar on bass and a rotating cast of piano players, which on rare occasions included Ms Williams. Mel's early career included being a Motown session player and extensive touring with Diana Ross, but the man certainly has jazz chops aplenty. Several years ago the local jazz society hosted Kenny Barron's trio with Ben Riley on drums and Ray Drummond on bass. Mel was sittin' front row and Ben (long-time drummer for Thelonius Monk) was "showin' off". It was somethin' to witness/hear and Mel was grinning ear to ear.

The Peter Erskine disc above includes John Taylor, is a typical ECM quality recording, and wonderful wonderful music, mostly penned by Erskine and Taylor.

The Mays/Fictionary is "growing" on me. More depths to be enjoyed on continued listenings.

Thanks for the recommendations .... still huntin' for some of the others.

Good listenin'

Jeff A

I have to go with Oscar Peterson as the 'master' of piano trio jazz. In particular, I would recommend the 6 Volume "Especially For My Friends" collection. Peterson himself was once quoted as saying Vols. 3 & 4 were his finest recorded music.

Apparently, the concept and the 6 vol. set all started by accident. A wealthy German record producer, Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer, invited the Oscar Peterson trio and various others to dinner at his home. After dinner, the trio started to play 'off the cuff' and it just so happened (oh to be so minted) that Brunner-Schwer had a recording studio in his house! It seems they staged another 3 or 4 such dinners and out of that produced the 6 volume set. It had to be held back for a number of years because Oscar Peterson was under contract to another label - but it was eventually released in a limited production run.

Another good one is "We Get Requests" - if your system is working right, you can hear Nils Henning Pedersen (Double Bass) singing under his breath.

Also, Petersen and Basie put out two albums under the "Satch & Josh" title that are well worth a listen.

I would also recommend the Jacques Loussier Trio. They do jazz versions of Bach that I enjoy very much.

In the more modern era, you might like to try David Sanctious (not sure if it is a trio, though). His album "The Bridge" springs to mind.

Dan

Art Tatum. Great trio with Tiny Grimes and Slam Stewart.

Red Garland.
Ray Bryant.
Bud Powell.
Some great stuff from George Cables on the Art Pepper complete Galaxy Recordings.

Ellington. Money Jungle, Duke's Big Four.

Just what I've been listening to lately.