URI CAINE TRIO - Live At The Village Vanguard

There are boys and there are men, there are masters and there are apprentices and there are jazz clubs and there is the Village Vanguard. During his illustrious and varied musical career hybrid piano muse Uri Caine seldom makes straight ahead trio recordings but thank the lord he decided to make one in Greenwich Village in 2004 with the stella Drew Gress on bass and Ben Perowsky on drums. I’ve only been to the Village Vanguard once (Eric Reed on piano - marvelous) but that was enough to feel the spirit, see that famous Exit sign that Paul, Bill and Scott sat under and listen to giants. This album belongs to the category of great recordings made in the club that should be in most record collections (Evans / Coltrane / Rollins/ Pepper / Henderson etc) with over 70 minutes of some of the best modern jazz piano trio music you’ll hear, beautifully arranged and executed with improvisational mastery and the sound of surprise by the truckload. Immune to the fashions and trends the current batch of twenty and thirtysomething piano trio-ists can succumb to, Caine and the trio deliver on all fronts: improvisation, imagination, swing, drive, invention and a good dose of irreverence.

The first five minutes and 30 seconds of the super fast, intensely swinging sometimes playful Cheek to Cheek that see Caine careening around bends like a latter day Michael Schumacher are worth the price of the album alone. Sometimes reminding me of Chick Corea on Now He Sings and even Andre Previn’s early Contemporary label trios in attack and classically polished fingers on the standards Cheek To Cheek, I Thought About You and All The Way, there’s not a dull, marking time moment amongst these pearls. You’ll love the angular BushWack (a tribute to 'our Commander in Chief’ – remember this was recorded in 2004), the free exploration of Stiletto and the overdriven Monkish themed Snaggletooth full of moments of rhythmic serendipity between the three musicians. Shorter’s Nefertiti is given a full examination and reaches a swinging intensity seldom heard these days. Caine is not afraid to run the trio gamut from Cecil Taylor to Ramsey Lewis with no small amount of aplomb.

If you want to go past the standard 4½ minute track into the fertile ground of the 8 and 9 minute live voyage this is the place to stop and revel in piano trio music in the tradition, on the edge and from the soul.

PS:..and as if the sound engineer read my mind s/he leaves 30 seconds of between sets audience banter at the end of the CD...and I'm truly there at 178, 7th Avenue South.