Live at Jazz Standard

Bill Trio Mays (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 16, 2005)
• Original Release Date: 2005
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Palmetto Records
• ASIN: B000A2H9ZC
• Also Available in: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #112,988 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Bill Mays is one of the most complete pianists in jazz. His range, spontaneity and inventiveness are all in the foreground on this set, Live at Jazz Standard, with his regular partners, Matt Wilson on drums and Martin Wind on bass. A consummate ballad player, Mays keeps finding fresh ways to approach a slow tune, reaching into the piano for the eerie muting of "Darn That Dream," strumming the strings like a banjo on "Willow Weep for Me," or letting luminous sustained notes hang in the air on his own "Euterpe." Mays also swings in any number of ways as he and Wilson and Wind move joyously through the great composers of jazz. There’s an ebullient bounce to Ellington’s "Squeeze Me," a rambunctious energy to "Let’s Call This" (introduced with a welter of quotations from other Monk tunes), and a soulful drive to Ornette Coleman’s "When Will the Blues Leave." --Stuart Broomer

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It's a sleeper, September 28, 2005

By 

badebop - See all my reviews

This review is from: Live at Jazz Standard (Audio CD)

I'll have to confess, first of all, that my son gave me this album because he didn't care for it. I slipped it into my CD player not expecting much...it's still in there after a week. I keep playing it. The more I listen the more in awe I am of the trio's playing. I'm primarily a wind instrument player and all piano players kinda sound alike to me. Not Bill Mays. He has a definitive style of his own. Very inventive, very clever, very humourous with his brief quotes of other tunes thrown in. I don't get tired of listening (it's a 72 minute CD) as I would with another pianist (outside of Monk, maybe).

Drummer Wilson and bassist Wind are equally inventive and add much more than just back up to May's playing. These familiar tunes are fresh, inventive (I can't help using that adjective) arrangements that will bear listening to over and over. As a rule I don't give any recording 5 stars. I'll let the test of time decide that, but I'm close to it on this album.

P.S. The recording has great sonics. Every voice is heard clear and balanced with just enough reverb to bring the musicians out of the speakers and into your room. 5 stars for the engineer.

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Bill Mays, December 21, 2009

By 

Jack H. Oswald "Oscomjack" (Gold Cnyon AZ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Live at Jazz Standard (Audio CD)

If you're a Bill Mays fan, you'll love this. He's best live. We saw him on The 09 Jazz Cruise & his current trio is superb.

3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars very good sound, crisp..., October 6, 2005

By 

Alcott e. Smith "cesar" (los angeles usa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Live at Jazz Standard (Audio CD)

...feels/sounds like you were there, cool sounding track #3 nicely unexpected.