Mark Wade Trio, Event Horizon

Bassist Mark Wade has a good thing going with his group and the album Event Horizon (self released). It's a piano trio with the well integrated threesomeness of Mark with a very inventive post-Eddie-Gomez bass lucidity, Tim Harrison with a harmonically informed lyrical post-Evans-and-beyond modern piano jazz style, and Scott Neumann giving us some engaging subtly and lucidly swinging drums.

All the pieces here are originals save one. I assume they are by Wade but they may also involve some collaboration? The exception is a surprisingly hip and swinging version of "If I Only Had A Brain" from the Wizard of Oz.

This is in the best tradition of the modern piano trio a fully three-way affair. Everybody contributes fully to the very nice end result. The music encompasses the richly complex musical matrices of modern jazz trios from Evans through Tyner and beyond.

There's plenty of excellent bass playing here to satisfy the bass-minded. But everybody comes together for a trio date that has much to like about it. It is mainstream but not at all formulaic, so that it all sounds very fresh.

Recommended!