Pianist Louis Heriveaux's Triadic Episode (Hot Shoe Records) with drummer Terreon Gully and bassist Curtis Lundy has this trio covering Mulgrew Miller ("From Day To Day"), Cole Porter ("Everything I Love"), Johnny Green ("Body and Soul"), Kenny Dorham ("Blue Bossa") and Jerome Kern ("All The Things You Are") as well as introducing their sharply-angled originals .
A fixture on the Atlanta jazz scene in the service of other artists, pianistically he reeks of Bud Powell and Oscar Peterson while drummer Gully and bassist Lundy do their damndest to hang in like Gunga Din. Gully brings a multi-genre sensibility to the proceedings. Lundy brings a wealth of jazz knowledge having graduated from the school of Art Blakey.
But it's Heriveaux's show. He's recorded, produced, arranged and composed plenty but this is his debut as a leader. Blues. Bebop. Swing. It's a holy triumvirate of jazz expression that melts over these 11 tracks opening with Miller's aforementioned 1990 beauty. Interestingly enough, Heriveaux has the balls to switch up the Dorham tune into a vehicle for his dexterousness in 6/4 time. Similarly, he shakes up the Kern and it comes out 7/4. These time signatures are almost Monk-like in their hard-to-traverse lineage.
Born in New York City, raised in Tampa Florida where his folks had him studying classical piano at seven years old, the family moved to Georgia where Heriveaux started piling up competition wins including a scholarship to the University of Georgia, Athens where he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree with a concentration in Jazz Studies.
Looks like it paid off.
