Documentarian Ken Burns said, “Jazz is a spectacularly accurate model of democracy and a kind of look into our redemptive future possibilities.” What better way to metabolize and heal in community after this divisive election season than some world-class, soul-drenched jazz? Look no further, for on Friday, Nov. 8, at 7:30 p.m., the Chocolate Church Arts Center in Bath welcomes the world-renowned Cyrus Chestnut Trio.
About 30 years ago, Reed Lappen, the owner of Boston’s iconic In Your Ear Record Store, handed me Cyrus Chestnut’s second CD, “Earth Stories.” The second track is called “Grandma’s Blues,” and I must have listened to it a hundred times. Hard to think of a song with a more full-body pathos. It feels like the album’s name, an “Earth story,” the way it strolls down avenues of memory. Like so many of his tunes, it is a deeply felt piece with strong overtones of gospel, jazz and blues. A few years later and to great acclaim, Chestnut reinterpreted Vince Guaraldi’s “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” Twenty five years, 15 albums and numerous awards and accolades later, Cyrus Chestnut and his long-time ensemble will take the stage of the CCAC. I could not be more thrilled.
Masterful jazz pianist Cyrus Chestnut balances his lithe technical skill with a robust, soulful style that speaks to his deep gospel roots and love of swinging, hard bop. Raised in the church, he learned how to infuse his swinging, classically trained style with a warm gospel sound, a style that first marked his work as a sideman, backing legendary vocalists Jon Hendricks and Betty Carter, as well as with instrumentalists like Donald Harrison and Wynton Marsalis. His leadership and prowess as a soloist has also led him to be a first call for the piano chair in many big bands, including the Dizzy Gillespie Alumni All Star Big Band, the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and the Carnegie Hall Jazz Orchestra. Joined by bassist Dezron Douglass and drummer Neal Smith, he continually uses the trio format to extend, elaborate, and refine the basic conception of the jazz rhythm section.
Cyrus Chestnut, too, has waxed poetic about the confluences between jazz, democracy and culture. “This country and this art form are founded on the basic principles of freedom, whereby a person is able to think, say or play what he or she chooses. Throughout the years as I look at history, all of my predecessors, regardless of what environment was, shared freely their thoughts and feelings in a swinging, musical way on the bandstand. They swung hard and made the listeners feel better leaving than when they arrived. This is the tradition I intend to preserve.”
Don’t miss the Cyrus Chestnut Trio at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 8, at the CCAC. As always, if you want to see a show and the cost of tickets is prohibitive, reach out to us at the CCAC directly and we’ll make it work.
Matthew Glassman is executive and artistic director of the Chocolate Church Arts Center.