After eight years, a new piano trio recording by Mike Petrone, whose legendary 1996 "A Lot Like Us" trio recording is considered a classic worldwide. The critics say " a swing poet like Bill Evans, but with playfulness and a sense of humor."

7 MP3 Songs
JAZZ: Piano Jazz, JAZZ: Hard Bop



Details:
Pianist Mike Petrone hails from Cleveland, Ohio in the United States. For more than twenty years he has led his own piano trio, and in 1994, began recording for a small independent jazz and blues label, Goblin Bee Records. âblueâ represents Mikeâs sixteenth recording in the last thirteen years. Although Mike has also become a fine vocalist, âblueâ is a return to his roots with the traditional instrumental piano, bass, drums format that he has studied his entire life and began his career with.
Featured on âblueâ is acoustic bassist Lamar Gaines, one of the last of the old school jazz bassists. Lamar has had more than a fifty-year career playing with the likes of Joe Williams, Teddy Wilson, and Yusef Latif. âBlueâ is one of very few recordings of this jazz master, and no doubt the finest. Lamar Gainesâ bass is a voice unique in the history of jazz music, which you will hear right from the very first notes.
Rounding out the trio is drummer John Stebal, who can also be found on Petroneâs previous trio effort, a 1999 side entitled, âBlooming at Nighttown.â Petrone and Stebal have a deep connection going back many years, as their fathers, John Stebal Sr. and John Petrone were also jazz bandmates thirty years ago. The connection between all three musicians is uncanny on this recording, and given the nature of the jazz music business these days with interchangeable studio players, to find a band that knows each other so well and performs together weekly is a true rarity. âBlueâ is a return to the heyday of the jazz trio, when it wasnât about a single player, it was about the unit. It is a classic meant for the piano trio aficionado.