Burnett’s trio rocks JZ with plenty of originals
Tuesday, March 25th, 2008You might know that I am a great proponent of original music as opposed to jazz standards, or at least jazz standards done the same old way. So I was pleasantly surprised and impressed by Burnett Thompson’s piano trio show last night at JZ, as he played tons of cool original tunes. As promised, he was joined by a few special guests, including myself briefly, which made the whole experience even richer.
For the hour-plus long first set, the trio (made up of Burnett, Chris Trzcinski on drums, and E.J. Parker on bass) was joined by Alec Haavik on tenor and soprano saxophones. I missed the first couple of tunes, but got to hear the last 4 or 5 in the set, which were nearly all original tunes of Burnett’s. His own compositions ranged in styles from straight-ahead jazz to funky rock and 12-tone free stuff. He also played or sang the occasional jazz standard.
Peppered throughout the night were songs from original jazz suites of his, the â??Creation Jazz Suiteâ? and the â??Planet Suiteâ?, which included a number of pieces named for various planets. A tune from the “Creation Jazz Suite” called “Heaven”, which was the one I joined the group on, was a 12-tone piece that was quite “out-there”, a listening challenge posed to the audience. I also heard “Neptune”, which was a fantastic tune played by the trio alone. There were plenty of other great tunes I also got to hear that I didn’t remember the names of.
He also was joined by the great Flamenco guitarist/vocalist Abraham Carmona for 2 tunes, one or both of which were compositions of Abraham’s own. Abraham sang and played guitar for one that was a sort of Flamenco-style rumba, and the other he was featured on vocals only–a passionate, fun Argentine-style Tango.
The illustrious Coco Zhao came up to finish the second set with the group, doing the old Shanghai classic “?????” (I want your love) in the great arrangement from Coco’s own album “Dream Situation“.
Unfortunately, I had to leave after the second set, but I understand they played some more original tunes in the third set. Were you there? Leave a comment about we missed.


