Has anyone heard this piano player? I saw his drummer's (Ari Hoenig, who's like the best! drummer! ever!) group in NYC last year and only recently realized that he was the guy playing rhodes.
The trio record I bought, 'Welcome Home', is off the hook. The uptempo tunes are about as bombastic as a piano trio gets, but even the most over-the-top bass register slamming and polyrhythms seem melodic and in control (but not any less exciting for that). I think he has a lot in common with Mehldau but with more directness and less intellectualization. The slow songs are pretty and dark and sound unique. They do the most skronky yet together Giant Steps I've heard (um, over the Mission Impossible bassline to start). I'm surprised he's not a bigger name in the jazz world, or maybe I just wasn't paying attention for awhile (probably because he's French, har).
― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 26 November 2003 15:37 (twenty-one years ago)