There’s just a different level of sound and delivery when jazz is served by veteran pros like pianist Markus Burger, drummer Peter Erskine and bassist Bob Magnusson. This is a trio album, like, how many of these have you heard? But in their hands each tune is a rich and original conversation of masters.
The coalescence of Erskine’s rumbling brushes, Magnusson’s sonorous line and Burger gliding along the ivories on the evocative “Kaleidoscope” is just one example of this team able to make a song feel like a John Ford western in Monument Valley. Burger gives a classical touch to the rich and somber “Big Chief” and goes kinetic with his mates on a delicate “Kodiak Coho.” Nostalgic sepia moods glitter on “The Good Old Days” as Burger serenades for “Skeys, but the team shows its fun side on the funky and snapping Monkish “Budapest Grand Hotel Hustle.” Every song has a moment of Magnusson adding just a dash of something here, Erskine striking like an Impressionist painter there and Burger dreaming up rich thoughts in the parlor. This is timeless music to imbibe slowly and to savor.