David Janeway: Forward Motion

New York City-based pianist David Janeway began his music journey studying classical music at age five. The move to the Big Apple happened in 1978, and became a permanent move in 1986. He has been a busy presence there for four decades, in various ensemble configurations. Still, he gravitates—especially on recordings—toward the piano trio, with Distant Voices (Steeple Chase, 2021), Interchange (Steeplechase, 2024) and now with Forward Motion, where he is joined by bassist Cameron Brown and drummer Billy Hart.

The trio—the same one that played on Distant Voices—does indeed move forward. Energized after the forced pause of the COVID epidemic, the players laid down a handful of standards: Cedar Walton's "Martha's Prize," Thelonious Monk's "Two Timer" and Bemsha Swing," the Duke Ellington/Billy Strayhorn gem "Star-Crossed Lovers," Cole Porter's "classic "Night and Day" and seven distinctive Janeway originals.

The pianist's "Vaxxed," referring (we can guess) to the vaccination culture that came out of the epidemic, is an agitated and unsettled romp, with Brown and Hart pulling out the stops, while "Two Timer"—a rarity, one of Monk's compositions that the composer never recorded—is quirky, though not recognizably Monk-ian. It bubbles and pops, the piano bright in front of dense rhythms from Hart and Brown. Then, Monk again, with "Bemsha Swing." The trio states the melody, then goes off on a zest-filled tangent. Like all of the covers here, the trio does not do cookie- cutter; they go after these familiar tunes in their idiosyncratic, free-swinging way.

Forward Motion was recorded in four hours—after months of preparation, writing and performing the music. It is three old pros going into the studio, ready for action, doing what they do: making fresh-sounding, spontaneous music