Peter Zak Trio: For Tomorrow

Consider the minor thrills in life. Six minutes into For Tomorrow, on a romantically titled track, "Plaza de Toros, Peter Zak's robust piano notes rise like smoke and embroider delicate but bold audio patterns into the rhythmic backdrop. Willie Jones III lends his dexterous, almost rocky command of drums to create a mood of urgency and alarm that manages to remain consistent throughout, from Zak's own "The Cream or the Clear to "Wee See, a Thelonious Monk cover. Paul Gill's bass drone adds a heightened sense of coolness that the album boasts of holistically. "You Know I Care is a beautifully nuanced musical sonnet, with rigid schemes and symmetrical notes. Gill and Jones lead their respective instruments' every fluid note to follow the piano's rabid clinkering across an enormous manifold.

Zak also successfully manages to take on a genuine classic, the oft-covered "I See Your Face Before Me. It's a daring undertaking, especially since it has been done before, bigger, better and by the likes of Coltrane and Sinatra. A musician of Zak's caliber is expected to deliver, however, and deliver he does. Sinatra enthusiasts needn't be disappointed because in the trio's cover, words seem superfluous. The marvelous ubiquity of the piano's quiet lyricism is immensely satisfying and merits numerous listens.

For Tomorrow is chameleonic to the point of being startling. It is organic and tight, with no loose chords and no loose strings. It's the sort of satisfaction for pure spontaneity that setting your iPod on shuffle would never justly accomplish. You find yourself tapping your foot long after the last note is played, and the resonance is as striking as the music.

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