For long time fans of straight-ahead jazz, any record by pianist Steve Kuhn leading a trio with Steve Swallow (bass) and Joey Baron (drums) isn’t going to need any nudging to be sold on that record. For everyone else, rest assured that To and From the Heart is a quality date of the idiom because these guys have been doing it right for so long, they know of no other way to play it.
Kuhn is nearing his 60th year as a working musician, a guy who learned first hand about jazz from Coleman Hawkins and Chet Baker before briefly serving as John Coltrane’s pianist right before McCoy Tyner took over his spot. But since the mid sixties, Kuhn has blazed his own trail, making a number of records that portrayed a curiosity in so many styles. He’s spent the latter part of his career making the piano trio his main focus with Swallow and Baron invariably being part of his combos for decades, lately sticking with these two heavyweights at their respective instruments for the longer term.
We enjoyed a taste of these three tremendous talents together with Steve Kuhn’s 2016 return to Sunnyside Records, At This Time. 2018 brought forth another Sunnyside release, this here To and From the Heart. For this collection, Kuhn splits the mix of originals and covers 50/50, making this a pretty good starting point album for anyone curious about latter-day Kuhn.
The standards reveal the depth of Kuhn’s Bill Evans-level feel for pretty melodies, like “Pure Imagination,” and Swallow’s singular, impeccable bass tone — he’s been the top electric bassist working in straight jazz for half a century now — receives a welcome spotlight on that song. Fluid readings of “Never Let Me Go” and “Into The New World” continues the Trio’s righteous handling of older songs by others.
In addition to being a standout bassist, Swallow is a standout composer, which is probably why Steve Kuhn included a couple of his pieces in this fare. “Thinking Out Loud” is balletic, gently swinging number, with proficient asides from Swallow and Kuhn. On Kuhn’s unaccompanied opening statement on Swallow’s “Away,” the innate sensitivity in his playing comes into plain view.
A Kuhn original finally appears at the tail end…actually two: “Trance/Oceans In The Sky” is explorative but also very harmonically lush, beginning with a rhythm-less grand intro, moving through a couple of more phases (including an eloquent Swallow soliloquy) before finding its groove about seven minutes in, culminating with Baron’s well-conceived drum solo.
It’s accurate to call To and From the Heart ‘standard fare’ Steve Kuhn, though that comes off as a backhanded compliment. It’s not. Kuhn just doing his regular jazz trio thing with Joey Baron and Steve Swallow is always exceptionally good.
