Continuing

Drummer/composer/educator Tyshawn Sorey returns with pianist Aaron Diehl and bassist Matt Brewer, the trio that recorded the standards set Mesmerism (Diehl also played on the drummer/composers live Off-Off Broadway with Greg Osby). Aptly titled Continuing, it offers tunes by and in tribute to late jazzmen Wayne Shorter, Ahmad Jamal, and Soreys one-time mentor and teacher, Harold Mabern (the album is dedicated to his memory). The exception is Matt Dennis "Angel Eyes." Aside from the personnel, Mesmerism and Continuing couldnt be more different. The earlier recording marked the trios debut -- they rehearsed for the first time hours before recording -- Continuing emerges from the collectives confidence gained playing live. This is a piano trio, speaking as one, not soloists playing together. This is ensemble music meant to showcase communication and emotion. Shorters "Reincarnation Blues" was composed for and recorded on Art Blakeys Jazz Messengers Buhainas Delight in 1963. The jaunty hard bop classic is driven by the frontline horns. Pianist Cedar Walton merely comps until his brief solo. Here, Diehls dark minor chord forcefully initiates a slow, swinging blues. He frames the lyric in minor voicings as Brewer punctuates them; Sorey dances around them imaginatively on hi-hat, ride cymbal, and snare. Following Brewers elegant blues solo, Diehl adds softly played dissonant notes in call-and-response. Jamals "Seleritus" originally appeared on 1958s live Portfolio of Ahmad Jamal, and was resurrected for the following years Jamal at the Penthouse. TSTs version is an abstraction. Prodded by circular hi-hat rhythms, Diehl forgoes Jamals delicacy, favoring bolder chord voicings in establishing a forceful presence the rhythm section responds to. At the three-minute mark, Sorey lays out double-timed, syncopated breaks. Brewer bridges harmonics between pianist and drummer, creating an alternate lyric. Increasing the tempo, the pianist exhorts his bandmates with strident chords. Sorey then drives with funky carnival rhythms and Latin-infused swing. The long, glacially paced "Angel Eyes" is spectral, spacious, and crystalline -- Diehls piano initiates a procession as Brewer accents with single notes before embarking on a tender solo. Maberns "In What Direction Are You Headed?" was composed for Lee Morgans final eponymous album. A fingerpopping exercise in space age soul-jazz, it begins with Soreys funky breaks as Diehl and Brewer flirt with blues. At two minutes in, its a punchy swirl of frenetic interplay. At five minutes in, Brewer and Sorey claim the foreground with a fat, propulsive, circular vamp. Diehl, in the upper register, layers on percussive lyrical accents. After eight minutes, the trio acquits an astonishing exercise in interlocking, hard-angled vamps, grounded by Soreys NOLA second-line beats. This remarkable version captures Maberns gospel, blues, and soul roots, reframes them in exciting 21st century post-bop, and illuminates their influences on Maberns composition. With Continuing, Soreys trio gets deep and wide, but performs without artifice. They present a brilliantly pointillistic, polymetric, authoritatively evolved language for jazz piano trio. ~ Thom Jurek