Mulgrew Miller
TRIO TRANSITION

MILLER, DIGNIFIED CRAFTSMAN OF HARD BOP PIANISM, between Oscar Peterson and McCoy Tyner

In the galaxy of jazz craftsmen, there is also Mulgrew Miller, about whom I will summarize a few lines of biography just to get us on the same page. So: an American pianist born in Mississippi in 1955; he trained as a sideman in the school of two important post-bop drummers like Art Blakey and Tony Williams, and he also held a dignified position as a band leader, especially from 1985 to 1995. Of his various and often ephemeral formations, Trio Transition refers to a Japanese tour in 1987, of which this eponymous album provides us with a record.

It's not an album that one would say: wow, I need to find it! And yet, if you happen to come across it while browsing a catalog, I believe it is still worth a listen today. In fact, we are at the best of Mulgrew's expressive maturity, who remains within the framework of a hard-bop mainstream but skillfully combines the reworking of standards like the relaxed «Like Someone I Love» or the engaging «I Hear A Rhapsody», and his own compositions like «No Sidestepping», «Second Thoughts», and «Whisper», also including a classic of Freddie Hubbard like «Up Jumped Spring».

The overall pleasantness of his style, however, does not shine for originality: it always hovers between the elegance of Oscar Peterson and the expressionist emphasis of McCoy Tyner, but without particular emotional peaks. Nor do his two partners help: Reggie Workman on double bass and Fredrick Waits on drums, both from a generation preceding Miller's, are two honest companions who do their job and little more, in the sense that - aside from the effectiveness of the rhythm - their specific contribution is limited to each signing a piece: the lively samba «Shades Of Angola» for Workman and «Two Faces Of Nasheet» for Waits. Of the two, the latter is more interesting, revealing itself to be a skewed ballad scented with exoticism and well interpreted by Miller with a Tyner-like attitude.

Essential - even though complete with information - is the graphics of the Japanese DIW Record, while the cover photos - deliberately eccentric black and white on the front and annotated colored ones on the back - are minimal.