by Brice Boorman
In an age where piano trios focus on a wide range, from cerebral to abstract. Pianist and composer Dave Palmer has chosen to reassert the elegance of swing as the language of a jazz piano trio. Recorded at Boulevard Recording in Hollywood on a vintage Bechstein piano, his debut, Dave Palmer Trio, with bassist Reggie Hamilton and drummer Joey Waronker radiates a warmth that comes only when players understand the goal of the music and how to shape it with care.
The Bechstein piano immediately makes its presence felt. Its sonority carries a rounded clarity in the upper register and a velvet darkness in the lower octaves. Palmer leans into this range throughout the set, often voicing chords so they shimmer with inner color. Polychords ring with lines flowing towards thirds and sevenths. Melodic fragments are built with motivic rhythms as in “Boulevard Blues.” The vintage instrument is a color focus for the trio’s language. Warnoker and Hamilton resonating with the hue in every conversation.
Hamilton, long admired for his adaptability across genres, provides bass playing that anchors without constraining. His walking lines are supple, shaping the harmonic rhythm with clear structure. Waronker, best known in rock circles, reveals his jazz sensibility as his ride cymbal beat is feather-light and insistent with swing as his comping figures across the kit are attuned to dialogue. Together, the rhythm section gives Palmer a buoyant canvas, responsive and alive.
Palmer’s originals are swing-rooted, and the melodies unfurl with a balance of classic jazz. You hear echoes of the classic trios as Palmer’s playing is marked by a willingness to let motifs breathe and transform. Each tune has an opening idea stated clearly, then refracted through subtle improvisation and rhythmic reshaping, ending with the idea and cadence.
The twelve-song set moves along with an enjoyable mix of jazz styles, from brisk swingers with energy to ballads of suspended time. Palmer lingers on melody as much as rhythms. On up-tempo pieces, Hamilton’s bass becomes the propelling forward push, while Waronker lays down crisp ride-cymbal lines that sparkle. On slower tunes, Palmer’s touch softens, his voicings moving from open into clusters.
The great promise of Dave Palmer Trio is how fully it speaks the same jazz language. There is no hesitancy, no searching for identity, only a trio intent on swinging into something elegant. The blend of vintage piano, Hollywood studio atmosphere, and players with cross-genre breadth gives this debut a combination of intimacy and scope.
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