And once again, BIX is sold out, featuring an exceptional pianist accompanied by familiar faces. The organizers of the jazz club consistently demonstrate their knack for selecting the musicians who perform at this renowned Stuttgart venue.
Time and again, familiar faces return to the popular “BIX jazz scene” as repeat offenders. This evening, pianist Cyros Chestnut’s sidemen are also well-known.
It was barely three weeks ago that Austrian drummer Bernd Reiter was behind the BIX drum kit for “Via con Te,” and bassist Darryl Hall has also graced the stage several times in other configurations.
Even for the imposing man in the kaftan (covered with large Celtic crosses), this is no first time on stage, as he noted in his opening remarks.
It’s the last concert of an extensive European tour, and they’re already quite exhausted, he emphasizes, but they’ll put “high energy” into this final performance.
And this is palpable from the very beginning: the three musicians are perfectly in sync and, moreover, their energy is perfectly harmonious. The trio begins the evening with a gentle swing, Hall and Reiter immediately shine with impressive solos, creating an atmosphere of enthusiasm within the first few minutes.
Spiritual Masterpiece Jazz Meets Classical Music
In his introductions, Chestnut repeatedly emphasizes how important the “spirit” in his music is to him, which is probably due, at least in part, to the fact that after his piano training, which he received from his father, he often played the keys in the Baptist Church in his hometown.
He wants to “construct melodies that tell stories about love and life,” Cyrus Chestnut emphasizes, and this works wonderfully this evening. Besides classics like “Autumn Leaves,” which he enriches with imaginative embellishments, he consistently finds a perfect balance with his fellow musicians in his own compositions.
The sound is a blend of coffee-house jazz and delicate, masterpiece-style jazz, underpinned by suspenseful beats. The rhythmic shifts, initiated by drummer Reiter, seem completely natural, and it’s fantastic to hear how the three musicians manage to switch between dense clusters of notes and clear, lean passages.
Chestnut’s playing repeatedly reveals his affinity for gospel, while at the same time he also demonstrates influences from the entire tradition of jazz piano, from Earl Hines through Wynton Kelly and Bud Powell to Oscar Peterson and Herbie Hancock. Whether it’s Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata or Satie’s Gymnopedie, Chestnut dresses these classical works in a completely new musical guise. He caresses these melodies and embellishes them with highly creative fragments that allow the whole to blossom into a true listening pleasure.
A tireless live performer with soul and boundless energy
If one were to use the term “musically completely in the here and now,” it rarely applies to a musician as precisely as it does to Cyrus Chestnut.
In his statements between pieces, it becomes quite clear that his soul, in interplay with his mind, creates this profoundly spiritual, high-class music, while also incorporating influences from other jazz greats such as the Czech bassist George Mranz.
A melody he heard Mranz play in Prague inspired him to create a ballad-like song that unfolds dreamily and is sensitively and subtly underscored by reverb and reverb. During the piece, a palpable tension and silence fill the club, broken only by a few insensitive bar patrons and their chatter.
It’s clear that Chestnut loves being on stage and is a tireless, idea-filled live performer.
With “Shizzle-Shake,” the music shifts back to a rhythmic and captivating style. Melodies flow effortlessly from Chestnut’s fingers; he constructs sonic arcs, initially propelled by reverb and reverb, then punctuated by virtuosic solos on bass and drums.
The stylistic range this evening spans from gospel and spirituals to honky-tonk, straight-ahead jazz, and even completely unexpected forays into all sorts of musical genres.
Chestnut has been touring tirelessly around the world for decades with various trios, and it’s the experience that concertgoers feel, and above all, the genuine joy he wants to bring to his audience, that they sense.
And so, after 120 minutes, a musical and poetic listening experience comes to an end, one that even as an encore brings a smile to the faces of the audience that evening.
Cyrus Chestnut (p)
Darryl Hall (b)
Bernd Reiter (dr)
