Trio in Tokyo (Live) (Bonus Track Version) Michel Petrucciani, Steve Gadd & Anthony Jackson

• 1 Training (Live) 04:40
• 2 September Second (Live) 05:19
• 3 Home (Live) 09:17
• 4 Little Peace in C for U (Live) 07:30
• 5 Love Letter (Live) 09:06
• 6 Cantabile (Live) 07:48
• 7 Colors (Live) 10:49
• 8 So What (Live) 07:08
• 9 Take the "A" Train (Live) (Bonus Track) 09:03
• Total Runtime 01:10:40

Info for Trio in Tokyo (Live) (Bonus Track Version)

This 1997 recording features the late French pianist Michel Petrucciani and his trio of drummer Steve Gadd and bassist Anthony Jackson in performance at the Blue Note in Tokyo. The musicians might seem an unlikely team, as Petrucciani (who died in January 1999) was an unabashed romantic in the lyrical piano tradition that extends from Duke Ellington through Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett, while Gadd and Jackson are best known as masters of the contemporary studio groove. Yet they achieve an organic sense of swing, even if Jackson's bass guitar lacks the rich wooden timbre of an acoustic instrument. From the Spanish-tinted "September Second" to the Evans-like "Home" to the closing cover of Miles Davis's "So What," Petrucciani's playing is characterized by melodic clarity, percussive touch, and rhapsodic ecstasy in the pure act of improvisation. The term "happy jazz" is sometimes used pejoratively for facile, formulaic music. Trio in Tokyo proves you don't have to be shallow to know the joy.

"Pianist Petrucciani was somewhat of a chameleon, inclined to go from mainstream jazz to more contemporary beats, which makes the rhythm team of electric bass guitarist Anthony Jackson and drummer Steve Gadd a good combination. They push and pull the pianist, flexing their fusion-oriented muscles while providing a swinging backdrop that Petrucciani can relate to, allowing him to exhibit his unbridled lyricism. This is a live club date done at the Blue Note in Tokyo, and the crowd response is indicative of the kineticism flowing on the bandstand from these three outstanding musicians. The trio swings hard on "Training," one of seven Petrucciani originals. It's a basic melody rivaling the best of Tommy Flanagan's work. Gadd's swing/funk informs "September Second," which sets the pianist on a melodic tear of modally repeated choruses as a basis for his startling improvisations. The lilting ballad "Home," with its slight samba inferences, goes into a disco shuffle and "Just the Way You Are" tonalities. Then the trio cuts loose for Petrucciani's flying bop number "Little Peace in C For U," a showstopper no matter your preference. Gadd's seldom-heard brush work on the ballad-to-easy-swing of "Love Letter" has the band gelling nicely, while "Cantabile" incorporates light funk underneath Petrucciani's paraphrasings of snippets from "Blues Skies" and "Without a Song." A more rambling melodicism that can go anywhere -- and does -- accents the modal, pedal-point base of the funky lite blue "Colors" with quotes straight from "But Beautiful" and "But Not for Me." As an encore closer, the trio begins politely on the Miles Davis evergreen "So What!," but grows energetic and animated halfway through. There is an emphasis on interplay, especially from Gadd on the latter bridgework. This is another posthumous reminder of how wonderful Petrucciani could be in a spontaneous concert setting, playing his own music with most capable musicians. Recommended." (Michael G. Nastos, AMG)

Michel Petrucciani, piano
Anthony Jackson, bass
Steve Gadd, drums

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