Recommend a jazz trio
 

I did a search on this forum and found a couple of bands, but while I was searching I noticed that there are some people on this board who really know jazz.

So I'm looking for a good trio. Just piano, bass, and drum. I have some Keith Jarrett that I stole off the internet, and I really like that, but I'm looking for more. I want to buy a few CDs. Nothing dissonant, I don't care for that type of jazz. Just smooth melodies and a good groove. An additional singer is OK, but no saxophone. Again, I don't like the dissonant sound most saxophones produce (Dave Brubeck being a rare exception).

Thanks all!

Jarret is a good start. For a more traditional trio the best you can find is the Oscar Petterson Trio with Ray Brown on Bass and Ed Thigpen on drums. They basically were the Trio. Be carefull, early Oscar Trio had no drums but had guitar instead (Herb Ellis on guitar) but still it's pretty great. I think you'd like either group.

Jarret's standards get pretty out there a lot of the times. He's hard to handle sometimes as he sings a long with his playing a great deal louder then a lot of pianists.

Chick Corea's 'now she sings now she sobs' is one of the best albums ever recorded in Jazz, that's the same trio format

there's a few suggestions I guess.

Check out Brad Mehldau. Most of his Art Of The Trio discs are pretty solid.

The McCoy Tyner Trio performed at Blue Note in NYC about a week ago. I enjoyed it tremendously. I don't consider myself to know much about jazz at all though.

Oscar Peterson Trio - Night Train. HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommended. Probably one of my favorite jazz CDs.

If you want something a little different, I wholeheartedly recommend The Bad Plus. Very good stuff!!!

You guys are awesome! I knew I came to the right place. I guess I'll run out and get Oscar Petterson first.

Thanks, and feel free to make more suggestions.

I was going to mention The Bad Plus as well; they sound kind of like a combo falling down a flight of stairs, but in a coordinated fashion. They also extend the idea of a "jazz standard"; along with their originals, they have very legitimate jazz renditions of new standards, such as Heart of Glass and Smells Like Teen Spirit.

probably my favorite piano trio record is "thelonius monk plays duke ellington".
if you like monk--some think he is dissonant--i can see it, but i dont hear him that way exactly--he is kinda beyond the tonal/dissonant divide--then i would search libraries around whre you are to see if you can find the monk on riverside collection--a huge reservoir of excellent music---the smaller monk on prestige set is great too, especially the sides with sonny rollins in high groovemeister mode.

check out herbie nichols too, if you can locate anything of his--kinda in the same space as monk but more spare and a bit more stride-like.

if you like the oscar peterson space, then i would remind you of art tatu who was just a monster. bud powell. tristano.

there is an early ran blake album, with jeanne lee, that you might like too. cant remember the title--i had it for a while, and quite liked it. early paul bley too. for both ran blake and paul bley, their development took them more out--whence the stipulation.

o yes--money jungle: duke ellington, charles mingus and max roach....a real gem of a record--you rarely get to hear what a great pianist duke was. and the "rhythm section" is, in the parlance of our times, the shit.....

who else....there are lots of straight pianists out there--i am not a fan of that myself--you can check pablo or concord record catalogues for them for example.

sometime if you want to nudge toward the "dissonant" stuff a bit, i would suggest you find some of the records by air--henry threadgill's trio.

good luck...

Alex Scholneck (sp?) of Testament has a jazz trio where they cover the old Testament songs. In jazz.

Awesome. Let us know what you think!

Bill Evans Trio. Sunday at the Village Vanguard is a good one to pick up

Some soundbites on the Amazon listing here:
Amazon listing

can i ask why this has to be a trio? anyway narrowing it down i like thelonius monk did a trio album (called thelonius monk trio) with 2 of my favorite monk songs. Trinkle, tinkle and bemsha swing. good stuff. thats really the only one i can think of right now. lemme look through my stuff.

I like trios because they're basic. Adding in a saxophone or a guitar or a horn just seems superfluous to me. Sometimes it can sound great, as is the case with Dave Brubeck. And a good singer can really add to the mix. But it's easy enough to find jazz with many pieces. It's this particular type of jazz that really pushes my buttons, and that's why I am asking for this specific recommendation.

Second Bill Evans Trio. Beautiful stuff.

Monk, to me, is almost like listening to classical music, in that you gotta pay careful attention to figure out what the hell he's doing with his piano. Every now and then, when i can fully concentrate on it, his stuff is a revelation; there is, always, a clarity in his dissonance, and its just a lot of fun to follow him as he's goofin around.

Try all the piano trios of these artists:

Phineas Newborn Jr., Peter Erskine (on ECM label), Ahmad Jamal, Chick Corea (especially "Now He Sings, Now He Sobs")

I'd recommend Ornette Coleman-The Shape of Jazz to Come if you like experimental/avant garde. But it's not a piano/drum/bass trio, its a sax/drum/bass trio, IIRC.

Check out Medeski, Martin and Wood...they are a great jazz trio with unbelievable improv skills

Damnit! what pcockren said. They've got a more...how to explain it....electronic feel. Check out the best of album from MMW.

Kenny Werner trio is nice...

Yeah, what pcockren said too. MMW are genius.