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Sam Yahel | Hometown – [Posi-Tone, 2009]

Sam Yahel - Hometown

Sam Yahel has been playing jazz in New York since the early 1990s, almost always as a Hammond organist. (He was a fixture in the early days of Smalls, on West 10th Street, along with the pianist Brad Mehldau and the guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel; these days he leads his own trio.) But he hasn’t hid behind the bullying power of the Hammond, its ability to give you shivers with shifting drawbars or a loud crescendo: he has put himself in places where pianists go, playing volatile music with curiosity and hunger in his improvising.

Hometown is, surprisingly, his first album as a pianist. It was recorded in 2007; I guess there’s still no rush to get the word out that he’s very good. A piano-trio record made in the studio with the bassist Matt Penman and drummer Jochen Ruckert, it’s casual enough to have been a gig, well-produced enough to represent a musician for a long time and strong enough in arrangement, soloing and interaction that it doesn’t lose your interest. That shouldn’t be rare, but it is.

..:: Source: Sam Yahel.com ::..