Jason Rebello Trio - Live Stream @ Ronnie's - Oct. 8

Jason Rebello (piano); Tim Thornton (bass); Jeremy Stacey (drums).

There may be better ways to spend a Thursday evening indoors although, these days, I can't think of any. No, a live stream from Ronnie's is just about as good as it gets particularly when the Jason Rebello Trio are taking centre stage.

I was, initially, a little hesitant when he announced the second number with those dreaded words "this is another composition of mine ..."

Was this going to be an evening of originals? It wasn't, although in all fairness the originals were all cracking compositions prompting one side-column pundit to observe that, much as they enjoyed Jason's standards they thought his own tunes were even better. Yes, they were indeed exceptionally good. Bearing in mind that the standards were Easy to Love, Darn that Dream - a strangely esoteric version of Summertime in, I think, 3/4 time or some mathematically derivative time signature - Blackbird, Oscar Peterson's Hallelujah Time, and for an encore Nobody Else But Me tells you just how good his own tunes were!

Jason is certainly fleet of finger, his hands dancing deftly and delightfully in a manner that the composer of Hallelujah Time would surely have approved. On the ballads he extracted the emotional content. He may not have been singing but you felt sure he knew the words as well as he knew the chords.

In Thornton he has a soul mate, a player who provides the harmonic foundation and solos with an exquisite melodic sense. I guess he too isn't unfamiliar with the lyric.

Stacey drives it along responding instantly to his leader's mood swings and putting the boot in when needed.

The time flew by and I was left thinking of an Ellington tune title -
Blues to be There. Maybe next year ...

Lance