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Peter bernstein transcriptions11/1/2023 I don’t have to worry about writing with these guys in mind. Harmonically, Larry will be totally inside whatever I might be hearing, and Bill makes every band sound like a band. “I know whatever I write, these guys can play it. ![]() “I just know the way Pete and Larry play, so I just bring things in and see what works.”īernstein concurs. “I don’t think I’ve ever actually written anything specifically for this trio, to be honest,” Stewart admits. ![]() He knew it would make a perfect fit with his lifelong collaborators, however. Stewart originally recorded the latter tune on his 2018 album Band Menu, with a trio featuring Walter Smith III and Larry Grenadier. Or the slick venom they bring to Stewart’s self-explanatory political hit piece, “FU Donald.” Perhaps that grease was part of the magic, as it can still be heard in the trio’s gut-level playing on the title track, Perpetual Pendulum – check out the stick-to-the-ribs groove on “Prelude,” Golding’s bluesification of George Gershwin’s Prelude #2. So, it is significant that we’re releasing this album with Smoke. At Augies, we literally passed the basket to get paid… But between there and the Village Gate, we amassed a local fan base. Our weekly night there was the reason why I started playing the organ: the kinds of little places where we could get gigs frequently didn’t have pianos. Smoke Jazz & Supper Club, the label’s parent venue, was opened on the former site of Augie’s Jazz Bar, where Goldings, Bernstein and Stewart established their rapport on a regular Thursday night gig beginning in 1989. ![]() The origin of their trio makes the release of Perpetual Pendulum on Smoke Sessions particularly significant. It’s hard to say, because we never really discuss it we just try to make good records. There’s a lot of crossover in what we like to play and listen to, and our individual visions of jazz tend to align. “We all really dig each other, and that’s probably the most important thing,” Goldings says in an attempt to explain the trio’s indefinable chemistry. When Goldings and Bernstein established their spot on the weekly Augie’s calendar, they tried a few drummers before clicking with Stewart and establishing a collective voice that’s endured through three extremely busy solo careers and Goldings’ move to the west coast. The guitarist met Stewart two years later when both were enrolled at William Paterson University, and the drummer and organist hooked up for the first time at a New School session. Goldings and Bernstein had met while still in high school, when both attended the Eastman School of Music’s summer jazz program. The session marked the 30 th anniversary of the release of their debut, Goldings’ 1991 album The Intimacy of the Blues.īut their history stretches back even earlier. Perpetual Pendulum was recorded last July at New York’s Sear Sound, a studio with which the trio shares a storied history dating back to their second outing together, 1992’s Light Blue. If you think about how short a time so many of our musical heroes were even active, let alone have a group together – I mean, the classic Coltrane quartet was only together for about four years. “Especially when you consider it in light of jazz history it’s trippy to think about, but that’s equivalent to keeping a band together from 1940 to 1970. “Thirty-plus years is definitely a milestone,” Bernstein says. ![]() Available now from Smoke Sessions Records, the date combines the bandmates’ originals with fresh takes on jazz classics by what is surely the longest-lasting organ trio in modern jazz. The longevity of the musical hook-up between Goldings, Bernstein and Stewart was the inspiration behind Bernstein’s “Perpetual Pendulum,” one of the scintillating new tunes on Perpetual Pendulum, the trio’s new album together. That’s not quite an eternity – though in jazz terms, it might as well be. The trio has been creating vigorously swinging music together for more than 30 years and show no signs of slowing down. Perpetual motion has been dismissed as an impossibility by scientists, but perhaps they should check in with organist Larry Goldings, guitarist Peter Bernstein and drummer Bill Stewart. Organist Larry Goldings, Guitarist Peter BernsteinĪnd Drummer Bill Stewart Release New Albumīorn at Smoke Jazz Club Predecessor Augie’s
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