The Cyrus Chestnut Trio with Ekep Nkwelle at Smoke Jazz Club

Cyrus Chestnut Trio with Special Guest Ekep Nkwelle
Smoke Jazz Club
New York, NY
July 26, 2024

When the formula works, a jazz set with a special guest is a twofer; you see a different musical side of the host while enjoying a tantalizing sample of the visitor's artistry. So it was when Ekep Nkwelle joined Cyrus Chestnut during the pianist's trio appearance at Smoke Jazz & Supper Club last Friday.

In the 45 minutes or so until the young singer joined him, Chestnut, who often favors playing standards, played a series of strong originals. He's a tidy writer, given to fairly short pieces that exude elegance and eschew flashy abandon. His compositional appeal—at least during his Smoke trio set—derived more from catchy melodicism than harmonic complexity. Indeed, the main themes of the lilting Latin-flavored "CDC"—dedicated to Chestnut's wife—and a sinuous piece inspired by a Mumbai visit were outright earworms. (How many instrumental jazz sets these days include those?)

Preceding the originals was an exuberant opener that, a little paradoxically, adapted "The Golliwog's Cakewalk"—a piece from a composer, Claude Debussy, who's known mostly for his lyricism. (Chestnut described the piece as the "uptown version" of the composition—"something that would make Disney happy."). A gorgeous "Polka Dots and Moonbeams" book-ended the three Chestnut originals in the middle of the set.

Chestnut's Smoke sidemen matched the stellar standard we've come to expect from his trios. Drummer Willie Jones III—a longtime Chestnut collaborator—was the consummate supportive player, unflagging in his pulse but never hogging the limelight; a round or two of graceful fours was about as showy as he got on Friday. Bassist Mark Lewandowski—whose talent has made him increasingly in demand since his arrival from his native U.K.—was dazzling, not least in the trio closer, "Soul Brother Cool. "The bassist was all over the piece, sustaining a powerful pulse and never faltering through multiple solos, including a full-chorus outing and repeated stop-time excursions.

Nkwelle is a rising star of her own, having twice made her mark this year at Jazz at Lincoln Center—first at its Unity Festival in January and again at the Jazz at Lincoln Center Gala in April. The 25-year-old singer somehow manages to sound both solidly in the tradition and like no-one else.

Her brief trio of songs at Smoke revealed her effortless versatility and ample confidence, beginning with a playful, light-as-air "Ole Devil Moon." A duet version of "Come Sunday"—the Duke Ellington tribute to God and the day of worship—reflected Nkwelle's deep faith (her website prominently bears a Biblical saying) and again demonstrated her skill as an Ellingtonian, which she also showed in her sure, strutting reading of "Solitude" at the Unity Festival.

By the time the trio-plus-one closed with a rocking "CC Rider." Nkwelle's charismatic charm hit a peak. She led a joyous call-and-response with the audience, and Chestnut was looser and more ebullient than he'd been all night.

It all ended too soon, as fine 70-minute jazz sets often do. But with any luck, Nkwelle—at least—will be back soon, perhaps with her own stellar trio featuring Luther S Allison, yet another member of 2024's superb stable of new young jazz stars.

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