Jeff Parker / Eric Revis / Nasheet Waits: Eastside Romp

If the answer on the television quiz show Jeopardy is: "Have not ever recorded together as a trio," you most probably would have never guessed the question, "What have Jeff Parker, Eric Revis, and Nasheet Waits never done?" Well, that is until now. Each musician has an impressive discography, with nearly 500 sessions in total between them. Just not together.

Waits' drums and Revis' bass have graced the music of Orrin Evans and Armen Nalbandian's ensembles and also Avishai Cohen's ECM release Into The Silence (2016). Waits' drumming can also be heard with everyone from Tim Berne to Jason Moran and Revis has kept time for Branford Marsalis and JD Allen. Parker's guitar is the new sound of Chicago jazz. From the post rock band Tortoise to Rob Mazurek's Exploding Star Orchestra and his 2021 celebrated solo outing Forfolks (International Anthem Recording Company), his guitar is much in demand in creative music today.

Here, the three trade off both as leader and composer of the tracks, with one improvised, "That Ensemble Romp," and a cover of Marion Brown's "Similar Limits" from his 1967 recording Porto Novo (Polydor, 1969). That piece opens the disc in line with the original, Parker taking on the role of soloist with his utilization of tangled and chaotic guitar effects. "Wait" in its quietness, skews towards the guitar sounds of Wes Montgomery as Revis steps to the for with a proper bass solo. Each track is expertly chaperoned here with the weight distributed evenly. Revis' lead on "Between Nothingness and Infinity" signals a slow promenade with guitar and cymbal accents. As the lead shifts to Waits with "Drunkard's Lullaby," Revis' bass keeps time while Parker's guitar smears messy notes across the composition's palette. "The Eastside Romp," an impromptu moment, is laid out like a math equation with its instant precision, and Parker's composition "Watusi," from his recording Like-coping (Delmark, 2003), is a surreptitious dance number, for cool cats only.