With the release of his latest album, Journeys, pianist Cyrus Chestnut affirms his position as an artist among musicians, thanks to his mastery of one of the most challenging formats in contemporary music. The piano trio is hardly a new concept in jazz. Certainly Chestnut has established himself as a giant in that format, through albums stretching back to his 1990 debut Nut and in countless appearances at clubs, concert halls, and festivals throughout the world. Even so, Journeys, his sophomore release for the Jazz Legacy Productions label, marks a watershed moment in his ongoing growth as a pianist, composer, and bandleader....
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With the release of his latest album, Journeys, pianist Cyrus Chestnut affirms his position as an artist among musicians, thanks to his mastery of one of the most challenging formats in contemporary music. The piano trio is hardly a new concept in jazz. Certainly Chestnut has established himself as a giant in that format, through albums stretching back to his 1990 debut Nut and in countless appearances at clubs, concert halls, and festivals throughout the world. Even so, Journeys, his sophomore release for the Jazz Legacy Productions label, marks a watershed moment in his ongoing growth as a pianist, composer, and bandleader.
“This is a trio record, as opposed to a piano trio record,” he points out. “On many piano trio records, the bassist and drummer are in the background, mainly in the role of accompaniment. They may get a solo here or there, but it’s pretty much the piano in the forefront. Journeys is more interactive. If you listen carefully, it’s about three gentlemen paying close attention to each other. Each of us is listening to the others, reaching and working together for what I believe is the unique sound of this particular unit.”
The lineup on Journeys is equipped fully for that challenge. Chestnut has played frequently with both bassist Dezron Douglas and drummer Neal Smith, who have also worked together on other projects. They came to the Journeys sessions with specific knowledge of how their combination would work and in peak condition to transform each track into a showpiece of empathetic improvisation within the structure the tune.
Many of Chestnut’s works feature sophisticated chord changes and harmonies. But whether amplifying on the opening motif in the breezy “Flowers on the Terrace” or teasing the gentle tensions which play between major and minor on the waltz-time “Eyes of an Angel,” they all stem form a fundamental melodic concept, which illuminates a path for improvisation while also keeping the results open to appreciation at every level of listening.
Chestnut’s, journey, to borrow his title, remains unfinished. It has taken him from childhood performances on piano at church in Baltimore through formative work with Jon Hendricks, Terence Blanchard, Donald Harrison, Wynton Marsalis, and Betty Carter through a catalog of his own albums and collaborations. These range from a gospel collaboration with the spectacular operatic virtuoso Kathleen Battle to celebrations of the Peanuts comic strip and Elvis Presley to his debut on film in Robert Altman’s Kansas City.
“Cyrus Chestnut is one of jazz’s most convincing anachronisms. His brand of crisp articulation and blues-inflected harmony evokes another era, sometime before the ascent of Bill Evans and McCoy Tyner, to say nothing of Herbie Hancock and Keith Jarrett. But unlike the typical nostalgist, who pines for the past partly because of a queasy discomfort with the present, Mr. Chestnut appears comfortable with his placement in time. What makes his music fly is a complete security in his style, and that sense of untroubled self-assurance.”—New York Times
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