Mike Jones: Mike Jones With Strings

Pianist Mike Jones' With Strings does not denote a sizable orchestral design but a piano-jazz trio in which a guitar replaces the drums, a format introduced in the 1930s by Nat King Cole's peerless trio and favored for years by the legendary Canadian pianist Oscar Peterson with Herb Ellis, Barney Kessel or Joe Pass on guitar.

One thing that Jones, bassist Alex Frank and guitarist Graham Dechter share in common with those earlier groups is an unambiguous capacity—one might almost call it a need—to swing as hard as humanly possible regardless of perspective or tempo. Whatever else it may encompass, this is an album that swings relentlessly from start to finish, which seems to have greatly pleased the audience at Vic's Supper Club in Las Vegas, Nevada, where it was recorded in December 2025. The lone exception is the session's penultimate theme, Ray Noble's enchanting ballad, "The Very Thought of You," wherein everyone shows his gentler side.

Even though most of the songs are well-polished gems from the Great American Songbook, hearing them played with such dexterity and enthusiasm is in every way an absolute pleasure. There is one nod to Peterson, his neatly grooved "Kelly's Blues," performed here in a walking style that surely would have earned Peterson's explicit approval. "Kelly's Blues" follows the opening three standards—"Oh, Lady Be Good!," "Gone with the Wind," "Autumn Leaves"—each of which swings as hard and as often as circumstances dictate.

Jones governs the first two before Dechter takes command on the swashbuckling "Autumn Leaves," supplanting the familiar melody with a dazzling solo before Jones weighs in with a persuasive statement of his own. Fun is the name of the game on "Destination Moon," a breezy, good-natured tune written in 1951 by Marvin Fisher and Roy Alfred, which leads to the album's definitive flag-waver, Fred Rose and Walter Hirsh's century-old "'Deed I Do." Marvelous solos, as usual, by all hands.

"The Very Thought of You" slows the pace (but not the swinging) before the trio resumes the onslaught, sprinting its way to the finish line with a breathtaking rendition of Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields' buoyant "Exactly Like You." It is a great way to affix an exclamation mark on a bright and consistently rhythmic concert by a talented threesome whose strings are inflexibly blended as well as firmly anchored in exemplary jazz tradition.