The Ben Geyer Trio - The Acadian Orogeny (2018)

The album’s five original pieces, originating between 2006 and 2014, create topographies of all sorts. Each constrains the musicians differently, sending us on different kinds of terrains. “Reminiscing” and “The Acadian Orogeny” are hikes: we create the vivid details of the landscape as we follow a predetermined path. “Movable Cogs” is a crawl through the daily grind until we break away, eventually returning home to find ourselves transformed.

The other pieces are quick laps around a track. “High Tide” and “Five-Tone Blues” are old favorites composed during college, revisited over the years, and finally recorded here. John Coltrane’s “Giant Steps,” the only track I didn’t compose, is a perennial challenge: a practice piece for years, but never just for practice.

The band bassist Peter Dominguez and drummer Zaire Darden handled these challenges with incredible grace: always present in the moment, yet always ready for the next turn in the road. They helped me turn roadmaps into journeys, sometimes navigating and sometimes driving. Unlike my solo drive along the Acadian orogeny years ago, this journey was made all the better by the people I took along for the ride.