Supporting the bible verse that “A chord of three strands is not easily broken”, the piano trio with bass and drums is arguably the foundation of all modern jazz. Here are a couple great recent samples of what the power of three is capable of.
Billy Miller gives a heavy dose of bop beats with his team of Andrew Higgins/b and Bill Belasco/dr, keeping the energy up and the solos concise, never overstaying their welcome. The team digs in deep to red meat pieces like “Anthropology”, “Yardbird Suite” and “Hallucinations” with the supporting gents giving a hip Latin pulse to “Estate” and going uptown on “Just Imagine”. Belasco’s brushes assuage Miller’s classy ivories on “Be Careful It’s My Heart” and swing easy on “In Your Own Sweet Way” with stately work by Higgins on “Someday I’ll Find You” and the team going into a deep blue period on the dark “You Don’t Know What Love Is”. Tasty trio treats.
Pianist and composer Billy Test brings together his team of bassist Evan Gregor and drummer Ian Froman to mix originals with a couple standards to display his impressionistic chops. He gives hint to an influence from Bill Evans with some clever harmonics over the nimble work of Gregor and Froman on ”All Of You” and is in a pastel mood on his own “Belonging”. You get some nice stick work by Froman as he introduces the nimble “Hardly” and Gregor is stately opening the stately “The Prince” and soloing around the clever interplay with Froman on “Coming Down Roses” . Test is dreamy over the cymbals for “Fate” and gets a chance to show his lyricism in solo form on the luminous “Empty Spaces”. Peaceful pieces.