Here's the warm and mellow lead-off track from March release Back to Back from the Grant Green influenced guitarist Artie Zaitz, also a wiz on Hammond organ which is his focus here, and trumpeter Mark Kavuma also here in less familiar guise on Wurlitzer electric piano (hence ''back to back'' in the title) the pair joined by drummer William Cleasby. Back to Back is to be issued on Kavuma's Banger Factory label.
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A milestone in Ethan Iverson's career as he makes his Blue Note debut with this fascinating trio record. And what a surprise it is: from the almost Sesame Street-like vocal choir on the title track which is oddly moving and the sort of melody you'll suddenly remember weeks after first hearing it to probably what is even more surprising is hearing how Iverson reacts to the drumming of Jack DeJohnette and Larry Grenadier, a very different trio sensibility to The Bad Plus. You get a certain grandeur in the cadences on 'The Eternal Verities' but actually the album resists the urge to go out all guns blazing and instead is quite pared back in places as if Iverson is time travelling back to a mythic jazz past. You get a good deal of reflection on a track like 'Had I but Known' and overall the album is certainly thoughful and full of weight. You get more out of it the more you listen. And on a track such as the delightful 'Merely Improbable' revel in that lightly swinging touch Iverson does so well and that DeJohnette does so much to help catch fire.