feature photo: Peter Figen
West coast pianist and composer Kait Dunton has four albums under her belt now with each presenting a somewhat different angle from the prior one. However, the common thread that runs through all of them has been her crisp piano played with Chick Corea preciseness. She can turn from lithe to muscular on a dime, with a deceptive embraceable melodicism and groove that can make the harmonic complexity underneath easily digestible.
Things are about to get really different for her fifth longer player and third with her current trioKAIT ensemble. trioKAIT 2, is coming at us May 11, consisting of Dunton’s first foray into electronic keyboards. Since her music always felt fresh and modern, this is no betrayal of her musical personality up to this point, but at the same time makes a whole new world available for her to exploit. The piano remains, but it’s just one of several tools now at her disposal.
Above is the world premiere of one of these new tracks, “Re-Entry.” “Re-Entry” kicks off the album, a sort of summation of all that we’ve delighted in Dunton’s music up this point: a linear, mood modulating melody with hints of pop sensibilities, a chugging, snappy groove and that sweet n’ sassy acoustic piano. As is the custom for them, the three are so locked in to each other, even during Dunton’s solo time. Bassist Cooper Appelt gets his own feature that refreshingly eschews show-off stuff to buttress the good pulse that he, Dunton and drummer Jake Reed got going.
The surprises come later on trioKAIT 2. What isn’t surprising is Dunton and trioKAIT being able to put forth tidy, four-minute contemporary jazz numbers like “Re-Entry” that both serious and casual listeners of the genre can immediately get into.
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