Following 2010’s High Standards, Jeff Berlin assembles a sizzling trio — his electric bass sounding like anything but an instrument of support — for a cheekily named return engagement with some classics.
This time, however, he’s focusing on lesser-known compositions. And whereas the previous album included several Miles Davis-related cuts, this one features a trio from the Wayne Shorter songbook — including “E.S.P.,” “El Gaucho” and “Fee Fi Fo Fum.”
Elsewhere, Low Standards (due today from Random Act Records) finds the trio taking on songs from Carla Bley (the sunlit “Vashkar”), her former sideman Steve Swallow (the skittering fever-dream “Falling Grace”), Bill Evans (an angular, utterly fascinating reading of “Very Early”), Benny Golson (the itchy prog of “Whisper Not”) and Metheny/Mays (the light-fingered, utterly enchanting album-closing excursion “James” — available as an exclusive stream above).
Richard Drexler again appears on both piano and acoustic bass, while High Standards drummer Danny Gottlieb is replaced here by Mike Clark of Headhunters fame. They mesh seamlessly, in a set that has a fizzy live feel. There is no small amount of wonder in hearing Drexler tangle with Berlin, then move with a remarkable fluidity over to the piano for another round of solo asides — notably on their furious version of “E.S.P.”
As impressive as his co-horts no doubt are, though, Berlin finds a way to stun, over and over again.
Steeped as much in jazz as he is progressive rock, and situated front and center in the mix, Berlin performs not like a bassist (whose responsibilities run toward infrastructure) but with the free-flowing narrative heft of every great soloist. Taken together, both Standards collections make the most powerful statement for electric bass as a jazz instrument since the heady — but seemingly long-gone — days of Jaco Pastorius.
And if you had to own just one, Low Standards might just be it — seeing as how the themes are less well known outside of smokey jazz clubs, and thus far more immediate and engaging for fans who come to Berlin from his time with Yes alumni like Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe and Patrick Moraz — rather than David Liebman or his own jazz-focused recordings as a leader.
There’s something on Low Standards for both camps.
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