Search - Great Jazz Trio :: Direct from L.a.

Greatest Album by The Great Jazz Trio

Matthew James Black | West Bloomfield, MI United States | 02/26/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

""Direct From L. A." is one of the finest trio sets ever recorded. Hank Jones, Ron Carter and Tony Williams are reliable "name brands" who, individually, rank among the "near great" in jazz. But together, during the late 1970s, this trio comprised a super jazz entity that exceeded the musicianship and creativity of its individual parts. "Milestones," from the same time period, is a comparable album. I'm always looking for the ultimate 'Night In Tunisia,' and while a trio might seem too minimalist an approach for a work of such magnitude, every note and nuance is present, and actually magnified by the clarity of the trio. Similarly, 'Round About Midnight' seems to call out for a horn, and most horns turn the song into a maudlin dirge. But composer Thelonious Monk was a pianist, and here pianist Hank Jones shows how it should be done. This version of 'Round About Midnight' has a crispness and clarity that for me is the signature recording of the piece. And while as standards 'Satin Doll' and 'My Funny Valentine' often sound as if they are being recorded just to get it over with, the two songs here have a sophistication and sense of energy that, like The Great Jazz Trio itself, rises above the occassion. Carter on bass, as always, is superb, and Williams on drums is always under control -- something I'm compelled to point out because once at Baker's Keyboard Lounge in Detroit I sat at a front row table directly in front of Williams, and the drummer was determined that I not be able to hear Mulgrew Miller and Wallace Roney, the two artists I actually paid to hear."