Timed to coincide with his special opening Friday night concert at the Newport Jazz Festival, pianist/ Jon Batiste is issuing a live set from his residency at NYC’s Village Vanguard in the fall of 2018. The rather short set of five selections features three Batiste originals as well as a vocal turn from Lake Street Dive’s Rachael Price on Ray Noble’s “The Very Thought of You” and full band rendering on Monk’s classic “Round Midnight.” Three of the five, including Price’s vocal piece, are done with a piano trio with horns gracing the latter as well as the concluding title track.
Batiste’s reverence for Monk is apparent from the opening “Creative,” already released as a single. It, like the other trio settings, features his 14-year-long rhythm section of bassist Phil Kuehn and drummer Joe Saylor. Batiste says, “ ‘Creative’ is a composition I wrote based specifically on the unique way we communicate with each other as a piano trio. It cycles through five sections with repeated melodic motifs and deals with our concept of Melodious Atonality.”
The mood shifts to the bluesy “Dark Train To Doha” before Price delivers a stunning, sensitive reading of the American Songbook ballad “The Very Thought of You.” Two trumpeters (Giveton Gelin and Jon Lampley); and two saxophonists (Tivon Pennicott – tenor and Patrick Bartley – alto) join for the Batiste-arranged “Round Midnight,” like the well-known Miles Davis version. All return along with percussionist Louis Cato except Lampley for the explorative, Coltrane-esque title track, featuring adventurous soloing and, in keeping with the title, elements of spirituality.
Batiste says of this recording, “The music on this release is all live, no edits or retakes. It’s a snapshot of live art. I composed and arranged these songs as vehicles for exploration, to be dissected and put back together, live in action, never to be played the same way twice.” He continues, “listen to this with open ears, eyes occasionally closed, a full heart and empty hands- listen without distractions and it’ll gift you. Someone in the audience at this show witnessed an angel appear on stage in the midst of the band during our performance. I believe him.”
Late last year Batiste collaborated with T-Bone Burnett as a producer for Hollywood Africans, a mix of originals and standards, in which he did vocals on about half of the selections. Included in that set was also “The Very Thought of You” but much of the music-related in some way to his hometown of New Orleans. This Vanguard set, except for Price’s turn is totally instrumental, mostly straight-ahead jazz. And, as he says, it is inspiring.
Given the long term Village Vanguard Residency and the brevity of this set, it would not be surprising to see more material from these performances in the coming months.
