Trio Volume 1 by Tim Whalen
What starts off with the accidental-sounding title “Uh Oh” rises as a knowing “bouncing with Bud” type groove, angular but shapely, harmonical lithe. This reminds me to note Whalen’s last album was Oblivion: The Music of Bud Powell, an ambitious and insightful absorption of the great bop pianist’s oeuvre, a giant who remains in the shadows of others. Another of Whalen’s primary sources is Chick Corea, whose music he performs, though mostly it’s originals.
This album secures the Milwaukee native in my mind as perhaps the root of a triad of the very best straight-ahead Wisconsin jazz pianists currently working. Moreover, it’s probably the best jazz piano trio album I’ve heard from a Badger.
The Corea he evokes most is the early phenom of the seminal trio album Now He Sings, Now He Sobs, far more than the popular “Spanish Heart” mode of later years. Whalen wields that sort of burning facility, though not like the somewhat jamming “Now He Sings.” Here he adjusts his flame to a rich range of temperaments and ideas. “For Chick” is pensive with understated dramatics. And akin to the aforementioned album, drummer Hannah Johnson evokes the great Roy Haynes, especially on a tune like “January Beginning” with a propulsive snap and crackle of cymbals and snare. It’s actually a minorish theme that seems to honor the month’s atmospheric weight but with a conscious sense of pursuing elusive New Year’s resolutions.
Corea’s “Home Universe – Eternal Child” is a fascinating, deftly assembled diptych of grace notes and deeply felt accents reminiscent of the minimalist album cover of three curving strokes of paint, signifying the trio. This also sounds like a child reaching out tentatively, discovering something on her fingertips, which she’ll grow to know. Yet this ain’t the sound of innocence, she’s already an old soul. Some of Whelan’s deep chords hoist a child to the sky. It’s sonic poetry.
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Cole Porter’s “So in Love” isn’t wimpy romantic brooding, rather the sound here of a bursting heart of heady passion, with Corea-esque blazing. Bassist John Christensen’s swift walking bass drives it while Johnson’s drums flare crystalline.
There’s more, but it resolves with the closer “Second-Hand Caffeine,” effortless pianistic sprinting over a Latin-esque tempo and a back beat creating a buoyant tension from perhaps the most joyously bounteous local drummer we’ve heard in a long time.
Tim Whalen’s album release party Friday, Nov. 21 at The Estate.
