Jazz Articles about Keystone Trio

Keystone Trio: Newklear Music: The Songs of Sonny Rollins

by C. Michael Bailey
January 1, 1998

The title of the Keystone Trio's Newklear Music is deliciously pregnant with twin metaphors. The first is the play on Sonny Rollins' nickname “Newk" (a name he was ostensibly anointed with because of his resemblance to major league baseball pitcher Don Newcome). Rollins also represents a nuclear influence in Jazz. More compelling, however, is that this is a piano trio performance of Sonny Rollins compositions. The piano trio is the nucleus of the jazz ensemble, the proton, neutron, and electron, ...

Keystone Trio: Newklear Music

by Douglas Payne
July 1, 1997

Newklear Music is the second disc by this trio of pianist John Hicks, bassist George Mraz and drummer Idris Muhammad. The title, a pun on Sonny Rollins' nickname (which he earned in the 50s due to a likeness to famed Dodgers' pitcher Don Newcomb), suggests a dry tribute to the tenor sax great. But, as the subtitle, “The Songs Of Sonny Rollins," hints, this is something altogether different -- and far more interesting.

First, although the inevitable ...