One never ceases to be amazed by the sheer number of splendid jazz pianists who call Chicago home.
Laurence Hobgood, Larry Novak, Jodie Christian, John Young, Jon Weber, Willie Pickens, Ramsey Lewis, Judy Roberts–the roll call seems almost endless.
To this remarkable list one must add the name of Jim Trompeter, who opened a weeklong engagement Tuesday night at the Metropole in the Fairmont Hotel. Though Trompeter has spent much of the past couple of years toiling in the studio (and out of the spotlight), he is apparently jumping back into the fray in ’98.
If his subsequent engagements build on the work he is offering at the Metropole, the Chicago jazz scene will be the richer for it.
A pianist who defies easy categorization, Trompeter merges several pianistic languages into a mix of his own. But by combining pop-tinged chords with blues-inflected melodies, by alternating rhapsodic arpeggios with crisp be-bop lines, Trompeter rarely fails to pique the listener’s interest.
For this engagement, he is appearing with bassist Eric Hochberg and drummer Mike Raynor, who do a great deal more than accompany their leader. This is a trio in the best sense of the term, with each member determined to be heard.
So despite Trompeter’s strengths as a soloist, he fares best when Hochberg and Raynor are asserting themselves. With each player producing a formidable sound and an aggressive approach to rhythm, this trio stands as one of the stronger groups the Metropole has featured in recent months.
Raynor, especially, sounds inspired by this setting. Though listeners tend to think of him as a straightforward, mainstream swing drummer (especially in his long-running collaboration with tenor saxophonist Von Freeman), Raynor clearly is stretching out here. The drummer’s sheer range of color and variety of attacks represents the boldest work this listener has heard from him.
Hochberg remains one of the more versatile bassists in the city, which makes his work the perfect foil for Trompeter’s stylistically free-ranging pianism. In ensemble passages, the bassist yields a plush tone and firmly linear playing. In solos, he makes even the most technically intricate cadenzas sing.
The viscerally exciting rhythmic drive that these players brought to a radical reworking of “How Deep is the Ocean” and the deep-blues sensibility they sustained in the venerable “Cherokee” spoke well for this band.
These musicians obviously have a great deal to say–to each other, and to anyone lucky enough to hear them.
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The Jim Trompeter Trio plays through Saturday in the Metropole of the Fairmont Hotel, 200 N. Columbus Drive, Chicago. Phone 312-565-8000.
