Joey Calderazzo Trio - Live (2013) FLAC

Modern jazz piano playing has been shaped by decades of musicians furthering what can be done on the instrument. The approach to the piano has only been a fraction of the overall picture. The interaction between the members of an ensemble has also developed by leaps and bounds since the music’s inception. It was the work of Hancock, Monk, and Corea, among many others, and their brilliant ensembles that have made the evolution possible.

For over two decades, pianist Joey Calderazzo has been unassumingly, yet assuredly, impressing listeners with his informed and refined playing. Using elements of style from his musical heroes as a springboard, the pianist has developed his own take on the tradition, which he happily shares on his new recording, Joey Calderazzo Trio Live, recorded during a performance at Daly Jazz in Missoula, Montana.

Joey Calderazzo has been a leading voice on the piano since he was first introduced as a member of the late, great saxophonist Michael Brecker’s ensemble in 1987. He soon made a handful of recordings for Blue Note and became a regular member of Branford Marsalis’s Quartet in the late 1990s. Calderazzo has remained one of the most intriguing voices on the piano and as a composer.

Joey Calderazzo Trio Live was recorded with the help of the pianist’s excellent trio, which features bassist Orlando Le Fleming and drummer Donald Edwards. The industrious trio performs a mixed program of Calderazzo’s compositions and a number of choice standards.

The recording begins with Calderazzo’s “The Mighty Sword,” a sprightly tune with playful counter rhythms, swinging into high gear for the solos. Keith Jarrett’s “Rainbow” follows as a restrained ballad featuring a moving solo interlude for Calderazzo. “To Be Confirmed” is another Calderazzo original fueled by a rumbling, New Orleans style rubato and driving percussion.

A stoic take on Troup and Worth’s “The Meaning of the Blues” is full of drama and élan. Calderazzo approaches Bill Evans’s “Time Remembered” with pathos and subtlety, in a performance that appropriately pays homage to the legend’s famed trio, building into a sublime example of tremendous group interplay. The album is concluded with Paul Motian’s mysterious “Trieste,” a haunting melody is followed by swells and releases in an impressionistic tour de force.

Joey Calderazzo Trio Live has documented the work of a modern master at his craft, funneling his varied inspirations through his own perspective and relationships with the musicians in his ensemble into a varied and intriguing set of music.