Greg Reitan: West 60th

Pianist Greg Reitan is based in Los Angeles, a good place to take advantage of the work he has found in film and television. He has also served up four previous top-shelf jazz trio recordings, beginning with his terrific debut, Some Other Time (2009), followed up by Antibes (2010), Daybreak (2011) and Post No Bills, all on Sunnyside Records. Moving on to the tail end of the new millennium's second decade, we find Reitan offering up another piano trio outing, West 60th.

Bassist Jack Daro and drummer Dean Koba have been there since the beginning—maintaining a rare long-term ensemble relationship that brings some of the classic piano trio groupings to mind, those of Bill Evans, Brad Mehldau, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea—guys that, like Reitan, who might be called dynamic traditionalists.

The disc opens with the Reitan-penned "Hindemith." It is a sound that draws inspiration from German composer Paul Hindemith's piano sonatas, for the crafting of a hard rolling, extroverted music that mixes jazz and classical ideas with an energetic deftness. "West 60th," the set's title tune, sparkles with of bright hues—a sound inspired by Reitan's view of the street from the Dizzy's Club Coca Cola venue during a pre-show sound check.

West 60th is comprised mostly of Reitan originals, but he includes a trio of well-chosen covers: a brooding and beautiful take on vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson's "When You Are Near," keyboardist Herbie Hancock's "Little One," perhaps the most recognisable tune from the Miles Davis classic ESP (Columbia, 1965), and reverent take on Aaron Copland's "Four Piano Blues, Movement No. 3."

"Man Overboard" moves hard ahead with a zesty elegance, leading into "Epligoue," a slice of measured, ruminative beauty to close the classy show.

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