Thats a while.
The piano trio format remains as effective and economical today as it was half a century ago in fact its the kind of group that usually delivers the news about where mainstream jazzs aesthetics are but everyone needs a change of clothes once in a while.
At Dizzys Club Coca-Cola this week, Mr. Chestnut has a brand-new group: a quintet. Not surprisingly, its his working trio, along with trumpet and saxophone. But it creates a different way for a listener to engage with him, and a reason to be reminded why he was so exciting in the first place.
The band is called Let Freedom Swing, and in Thursday nights early set it played Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho as a hard-bop minor-key blues; Walk With Me Jesus with a Coltrane-quartet slow groove; Lift Every Voice and Sing as a lovely, ruminative solo piano piece; a calypsolike We Shall Overcome; and a version of Herbie Hancocks strange bossa nova I Have a Dream. You see the thread. It was music of black American pride and liberation, well timed for a run that began on Inauguration Day. But somehow it didnt feel programmatic. You were hearing music more than concept, which is consistent with Mr. Chestnuts entire career and perhaps why his gigs can be so much more satisfying than his records. Nevertheless, this band should make a record. Mr. Chestnut is stretching himself. It was good to hear him incorporate a little bit of Mr. Hancocks slippery harmonic nuance. (In the past his influences have seemed to extend through jazz of the mid-50s, skip the 60s entirely and resume with pop and gospel of the 70s.)
Cyrus Chestnut and Let Freedom Swing continue through Sunday at Dizzys Club Coca-Cola, Frederick P. Rose Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, 60th Street and Broadway; (212) 258-9595, jalc.org.
