The year in piano trios
Noteworthy jazz albums featuring the format are plentiful in 2024

Surveying the year in jazz so far, one theme stands out: Piano trios are everywhere. I’ve heard more than a dozen noteworthy new records featuring the piano-bass-drums format in 2024, and I ran down some of my favorites in a new Critic’s Notebook piece for the Times — gift link here.

Albums under discussion, with Bandcamp links where applicable, include:

-Tyshawn Sorey Trio, The Susceptible Now (w/ Aaron Diehl, Harish Raghavan)
-Kim Cass, Levs (w/ Matt Mitchell, Sorey)
-Kris Davis Trio, Run the Gauntlet (w/ Robert Hurst, Johnathan Blake)
-Tarbaby, You Think This America (Orrin Evans, Eric Revis, Nasheet Waits)
-Bill Charlap Trio, And Then Again (Peter Washington, Kenny Washington)
-Matthew Shipp Trio, New Concepts in Piano Trio Jazz (Michael Bisio, Newman Taylor Baker)
-Vijay Iyer, Compassion (w/ Linda May Han Oh, Sorey)
-Marta Sanchez Trio, Perpetual Void (w/ Chris Tordini, Savannah Harris)
-Matt Mitchell, Zealous Angles (w/ Tordini, Dan Weiss)

Space constraints prevented me from going deeper on the following, but I’ve been digging all these as well:

-Ethan Iverson, Technically Acceptable (w/ Thomas Morgan, Kush Abadey, plus Simón Willson and Vinnie Sperrazza). No one writes like Iverson, and the droll charm of his compositional style is on full display here. (Rounding out the trio material on this disc is Iverson’s first piano sonata, which my friend Seth Colter Walls highlighted back in January.)

-Luther Allison, I Owe It All to You (w/ Boris Kozlov, Zach Adleman). An irresistably warm and swinging debut from the Charlotte-born pianist, who has worked with Samara Joy.

-John Zorn, Ballades (w/ Brian Marsella, Jorge Roeder and Ches Smith). The third in a series of Tzadik albums featuring this lineup playing pieces by Zorn. To my ear, a seamless hybrid of jazz and classical approaches. No other album cited here sounds anything like this one — a must-hear.

-Nduduzo Makhathini, uNomkhubulwane (w/ Zwelakhe-Duma Bell le Pere, Francisco Mela). Three expansive suites, offering a satisfying balance of churning intensity and uplifting melody.

The line had to be drawn somewhere, but let it be known that there’s also a new George Cables trio disc out next month! (I Hear Echoes, with Essiet Essiet and Jerome Jennings.)

As I mention in the piece, beyond the enjoyment to be found in each of these, what’s exciting to me is the sheer variety. There’s really no baseline sound for the modern piano trio — I hear value and potential in all these paths. Hope you find something to dig here, and if I’ve missed any 2024 piano-trio efforts, please let me know!

https://darkforcesswing.substack.com/p/the-year-in-piano-trios?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=2335611&post_id=150930992&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=13mc4&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

One of the most traditional of Jazz configurations, the piano trio has followed numerous adaptations since standardizing as piano, double bass and drums sometime in the late 1950s. Modifications are still being tried though as these accomplished sets by international players attest. One is more wedded to the mainstream, while the other stretches the form without fracturing it.

Madrid native Marta Sanchez now plies her piano skill in New York where she’s also a member of David Murray’s quartet. Her associates on Perpetual Void are Americans, bassist Chris Tordini, known for his work with Andy Milne and drummer Savannah Harris, who has recorded with the likes of Peter Evans. Caught in My Own Trap’s trio is more international. Pianist Kirke Karja, who leads her own bands and also plays contemporary notated music is Estonian; bassist Étienne Renard, who has recorded with Benoît Delbecq is French; while drummer Ludwig Wandinger, who has worked with Jim Black, is German.

Although based around themes of death and insomnia, the interpretation of 11 of Sanchez’s compositions is anything but a downer. While probably closer to the expected than she probably imagined, from the beginning the performances move with swiftness and finesse. Here, the pianist’s expanded glissandi and energetic playing encompass chord substitutions and counter melodies. Her key bounces and comping are complemented by the bassist’s tandem progressions, sometimes involving careful strums, and the drummer’s rolls and pops.

At points pivoting to a more impressionistic interface, an assured change of pace is evident in the CD’s second half as Sanchez expands to a multi-fingered and more rhythmically adventurous sequences. “Black Cyclone” and “This Is The Last One About You”, the penultimate tracks are the standouts. The first is a clearly defined subtle swinger that attains intensification via passing chords as the pianist answers the bassist’s low-pitched string twangs with emphasized patterns that are almost silent movie-accompaniment-like lively. “This Is The Last One About You” maintains the mood with freer motions emphasizing different parts of the keyboard, methodical strums from the bassist plus press rolls and cymbal splashes from the drummer.

More daring in its musical evolution, the other disc isn’t as piano-centric and more of a group effort, with five of its 12 tracks, group improvisations and the other composed by Karja. “Take My Tender Heart”, the first track and first improvisation sets out the procedure. Ascending from silence to drum crunches and piano shakes, the pianist sets out the swaying exposition with reflective chording and soundboard echoes. Along the way Renard’s sul ponticello bass string squeaks turn to emphasized pumps and Wandinger adds hard percussion slaps.

This strategic interplay doesn’t vary that much on the pianist’s compositions, which are also open enough to introduce pressurized pedal point (“Sweat’), individual note emphasis at low volume (“Seiklus”) and soundboard variations which appear to move in slow motion as twanging high pitches are echoes on the lower-pitched keys. One track entitled “Double Bass Interlude” on which Renard’s unaccompanied solo that abuts multi-string buzzes and spiccato emphasis is showcased, also emphasizes group cohesion.

Considering that the pianist can easily emphasize sections of the keyboard and strings with aplomb and run through super speedy patterns and isolated single tones with the same ease shows that her keyboard command is as commanding as Sanchez’s. With both discs affiliated with a mixture of energy and ennui, each can be appreciated on its merits. The program of one may be more conventional and the other more adventurous, but that means that diverse listeners may be drawn to either one.

https://www.jazzword.com/reviews/marta-sanchez-trio/