Cyrus Chestnut Trio – Everybody Digs Piano Trios Week , Support: Sam Crowe Trio Monday 7th February

Cyrus Chestnut (piano), Geoff Gascoyne (bass), Doug Sides (drums)

Hailed as the best jazz pianist of his generation by Time Magazine, rising star pianist Cyrus Chesnut has resisted being typecast in any one niche. Instead he has developed his own unique soulful style that combines trad-style playing, with a New Orleans rhythmic sensibility and soul and gospel flourishes. Appearing here with bassist geoff Gascoyne and drummer Doug Sides,

Support from pianist/composer Crowe, whose poetic, melodic original compositions have earned him ‘rising star’ status.

Biography

The Baltimore native who has completed stints with Betty Carter and Wynton Marsalis, has recently found a rather unique style and voice in terms of his playing and writing and was in fine form in displaying that to a very attentive audience. Starting off with a few tunes from his 1995 Atlantic release The Dark before the Dawn", Sentimentalia and Call me later, Cyrus and company were off and running, combining a post-bop feel with a bluesy "laid backness" that was at once accessible and challenging.

While never losing his sense of humor, Cyrus dismissed the group and proceeded to play a few gospel tunes alone at the piano. The classically trained pianist is one of the very few players who can fuse trad-style playing with a New Orleans type of rhythmic sensibility without sounding trite or screamingly derivative. That being completed, the group came back on the bandstand and played a supple reading of "If I Should Lose You", featuring bassist Steve Kirby.

Kirby is a rock-solid groove master who fits in perfectly with the percussive playing of his leader and the fine drumming of Garnett. To close out the set, a version of Caravan slowly crept out of a piano/drums intro that drew gasps of pleasure and anticipation from audience members throughout the club. Garnett played a very melodic hand drum motif which set the table for the musical feast that the trio served up, using Juan Tizol's classic tune as a perfect vehicle to send the crowd out into the New York night, happy, smiling and satisfied.