Label: Pi Recordings, 2024
Personnel - Aaron Diehl: piano; Harish Raghavan: bass; Tyshawn Sorey: drums.
The excellent trio of multi-awarded drummer Tyshawn Sorey—featuring pianist Aaron Diehl and bassist Harish Raghavan—delivers its fourth album of covers with through-composed forms and inspiring tune modifications that explore many new directions. The album, The Susceptible Now, highlights the kaleidoscopic brilliance of their musical interaction through deft arrangements and expanded renditions of pieces deeply personal to Sorey, both new and old. This work represents a completely different sound and approach compared to his own improvisation-driven compositions.
McCoy Tyner’s “Peresina” is reshaped with inventive nuance, beginning with Diehl’s reflective piano intro featuring sparse, thoughtful chord progressions. Sorey’s enlightened brushwork and Raghavan’s elegant melodic drive join in, establishing a groove that evolves through bursts of unexpected energy. Diehl thrives within the supportive, inventive rhythms sculpted by his collaborators. After a series of rhythmic mutations, the piece concludes on the same cool tone with which it began, revisiting the last eight bars of the tune’s third section.
Sorey first encountered “A Chair in the Sky” while watching the documentary Charles Mingus: Triumph of the Underdog, later discovering it on Joni Mitchell’s album Mingus (Asylum Records, 1979). Perfectly suited for dimmed lights and introspective moods, the piece opens with calm, abstract piano lines, creating a tranquil ambiance. Delicate brush touches and breathing bass lines gradually shape its form. Following Raghavan’s admirable bass solo, filled with rhythmic and melodic intention, the trio concludes with soulful, poignant beauty, enhanced by Sorey’s expressive drum fills and cymbal colorations.
The inclusion of Vividry’s contemporary soul-pop tune “Your Good Lies” may come as a surprise but stands out as one of the album’s most joyful moments. This 15-section through-composed marvel brims with whimsical invention and vibrant energy. Syncopated piano chords and refined passages create a groove-laden journey that reinterprets jazz language to unlock new possibilities.
Sorey dedicates Brad Mehldau’s “Bealtine” to his good friend Anthony Amadeo, a drum historian and collector. The tune’s swinging, uptempo three-time feel showcases the trio’s unique voice, reflecting the talent of three musicians who sound unmistakably like themselves.
The Susceptible Now is a lucid, masterful work that, while precisely arranged in a modern fashion, maintains a pervasive sense of freedom and executional flexibility.
Favorite Tracks:
01 - Peresina ► 03 - Your Good Lies