David Kikoski Trio @ Jazz Standard 5/29/12

It was straight ahead excellency.  David is amazing.  He was fun to watch because he was so into it.  The bass and drums were awesome as well.  The drummer really had me going especially the last tune.  He was doing some kind of crisscross thing with his sticks on the drumheads that had an African rhythm and was amazing.

I was really tired and I considered not going.  The music woke me up and I completely forgot I was tired.

Great set!

David Kikoski – piano
Ed Howard – bass
Al Foster – drums

In the performance of jazz music today, “you have to study and know the traditions, but then you have to play things that haven’t been played before,” says David Kikoski. “It becomes a bal­ance of knowing the tradition and using your own original voice to add to it.” David has maintained that delicate balance of tradition and innovation throughout his career. He’s enlivened dozens of record­ing dates as a first–call sideman for jazz greats ranging from Red Rodney to Roy Haynes, and carefully built his reputation as a leader with such fine albums as Mostly Standards (2009) and Live At Smalls (2010). A regular with the Mingus Big Band, David Kikoski returns to our stage this week with his own superb trio featuring bassist Ed Howard and the great Al Foster on drums. “A chopsy, hard–hitting player who has excelled for decades in elite, virtuosic company…Kikoski surges and slaloms through the tunes, seemingly guided at times by those post–bop pole stars Herbie Hancock and McCoy Tyner.” (Peter Hum, Ottawa Citizen)