COMPOSERS: Taylor Eigsti
LABELS: Concord
PERFORMER: Taylor Eigsti (piano), Julian Lage (guitar), Reuben Rogers (bass), Eric Harland (drums), Joshua Redman, Dayna Stephens, Ben Wendel (sax)
CATALOGUE NO: COJ30330.2
Hyped by Dave Brubeck as ‘the most amazing talent I’ve ever come across’, Taylor Eigsti has certainly created an admirable body of work in just a few years. He mixes standards with stimulating originals and the now obligatory cover of a rock song.
On some tracks he overdubs his piano, and says he’s aiming for the effect of a ‘rhythm-piano’ like the rhythm-guitar in rock.
Jazzers whose preference is for pre-bop might argue that proper two-handed piano sounded like that in the first place. Whatever, nothing, including ‘DigiTech pedal effects’ on ‘Caravan’, comes across as gimmickry.
Eigsti is a thoughtful, inventive writer and improviser, proving a fine balladeer on tracks such as ‘Not Ready Yet’ and the bonus ‘I Got it Bad’, while effortlessly stirring up excitement on up-tempo pieces. Barry Witherden