Chris Van Voorst Van Beest Trio: Bye Design
It is sometimes difficult to tell where composition ends and improvisation starts in the music of Chris Van Voorst Van Beest. He is clearly classically trained but with a lovely sense of groove and jazz harmony. His music is full of classical forms, sophisticated improvisation, unusual voicing of chords, changing rhythms and time signatures. It could sound a mess. That it doesn’t is down to the compositional skills of Van Beest and the sensitivity of his trio. This is compelling, stylish jazz. Jazz with a distinctive voice.
The opening track, DDT, lays down a marker for what is to come. It starts with a fugue. Obviously influenced by Bach it powers onwards, gathering momentum. A jazz lilt develops into a catchy groove and more recognisable jazz changes emerge. Zach Lapidus’s piano solo breaks up the rhythm before the fugue temporarily recedes allowing Van Beest to pick out a solo over the chords, with Lapidus comping. Then the fugue reemerges. The result is exhilarating.
Van Beest is a bass player and the bass’s role in these tracks is as an equal partner with the piano. They often play in unison, fill in the gaps for each other, pull apart and come together. The sensitive relationship between piano and bass is the distinctive feature of the recording.
This interplay between van Beest and Lapidus always feels organic, whether the music is composed or improvised. In The Long Line they seem to toy with each other, as if trying to catch each other out on the long, drawn out phrases. In the more conventional Rainy Day Music, a delicate, gentle waltz, they support and complement each other with lyrical effect.
It’s probably best not to try to count the time signature(s) of Pastiche (pastiche of what is not clear). Better to relax and let the shifting rhythms wash over you in a melodic stream.
Chris Van Voorst Van Beest is originally from Maine but now lives in Brooklyn. He has made a reputation for himself as a composer of classical music but this is his first album with a jazz trio. Let’s hope he makes more.
Discography
DDT; Reactor; Rainy Day Music; The Long Line; Interludio; Pastiche; Early Riser; Bye Design; Open, Broken; Three Moods (49.04)
Van Beest (b); Lapidus (p, toy p); Nathan Ellman-Bell (d, pc). GB’s Juke Joint, November 2025.
Adhyâropa Records
Harvie S: Bright Dawn
The bass has always played a central role in jazz. It is an integral part of both the groove and the chord progression. But bass players are not always content to be the supporting act and inevitably find a way, not just of soloing, but of leading the band and playing the tune.
Harvie S has had a long and illustrious career playing bass with a host of jazz greats and has the chops to do this, leading a quartet of sensitive and skillful players in his latest recording, Bright Dawn.
It goes without saying that Harvie has the innate musicality, the technical skill and the experience to deliver expressive and often virtuosic melodies but the most successful tracks are those when the bass takes a more traditional role, providing a rhythmic and harmonic ground for Peter Bernstein’s excellent guitar.
In Ghosts Of Havana, Harvie plays a lovely, lilting riff that underpins a moody, Latin-influenced melody. Navalny has a repeated motif on the piano supporting a lyrical, bowed melody that spawns a more rhythmic tune. Guitar and bass play the tune in unison before Harvie’s walking bass powers Bernstein’s guitar in a groove-filled solo in I Got Rhythm And Blues.
Occasionally, when Harvie is soloing or laying down the melody we might wish for the guitar or piano to provide more definition of rhythm and harmony, moving into the space normally occupied by a bass. There is reluctance to do this, presumably to allow Harvie more freedom. He makes the most of this freedom but, although he is always imaginative and expressive, it sometimes makes for a hard listen.
All but two of the tracks are originals. Voice In The Sky has some exquisite interplay between Harvie and Bernstein but the lovely bowed melody of The Truth is perhaps the highlight, allowing Bernstein and Miki Hayama, on piano, some fine, lyrical solos. Simple, but effective.
Discography
Ghosts Of Havana; Devil May Care; Waltz For Vartan; Navalny; I’ve Got Rhythm And Blues; Yukimi’s Song; Humpty Dumpty; The Truth; Voice In The Sky; Swithering (50.28)
Harvie S (b); Bernstein (g); Hayama (p, kyb); Matt Wilson (d). Teaneck Sound, New Jersey, 2024.
Origin Records
Randy Ingram: Sound Within
There can be few jazz pianists playing today who have not been influenced by Bill Evans. Many have made recordings recognising this. Homages, tributes, memorials. Randy Ingram describes his new album, Sound Within, as “a celebration of Bill Evans”. Not only does it include many tunes written or made famous by Evans but Ingram’s sidemen, drummer Joe La Barbera and bassist Rufus Reid (albeit briefly) played as part of the Bill Evans Trio. The title of the album, Sound Within, expresses an intention to capture the sound of his inspiration.
This invites comparisons, of course, and the best way to appreciate this music is to put these aside and enjoy a contemporary jazz pianist at the top of his game playing some classic tunes with a trio that could not have a better pedigree.
There is much to enjoy here. Ingram combines an imaginative approach to harmony with an innate sense of lyricism. He plays with attack and momentum and his improvisations spill over with exuberant virtuosity. But it is in his quieter moments that he shines. He has a limpid tone and, given the space to breathe, a delicate, emotional touch.
This is most evident in My Foolish Heart. His is a relaxed, sensitive approach, not without harmonic sophistication, with a phrasing that allows the music to breathe. And there is room for Reid and La Barbera to nudge the music gently along. For All We Know is underpinned by some lovely bass lines from Reid but the piano line feels a little over-ornamented.
The album contains three Ingram compositions. Aloft is a simple, lilting waltz played with delicate feeling by Ingram around a Reid solo. Sound Within is similar in mood, though in four. In Remembrance, melancholic musings finally evolve into a lyrical melody.
Discography
Turn Out The Stars; My Foolish Heart; Aloft; Ezz-Thetic; Letter To Evan; For All We Know; Sound Within; Mother Of Earl; Remembrance (52.32)
Ingram (p); Reid (b); La Barbera (d). The Samurai Hotel, Astoria, NY, November 2025.
Chill Tone Records
