Some more modern jazz piano trios


Since discovering Christian Pabst several years ago, I've been slowly expanding my catalog of good contemporary jazz piano trios. Among these include the absolutely fantastic Triosence and the equally melodious Yuko Mabuchi Trio. An older artist still putting out immaculately played and recorded albums is Steve Kuhn and his trio.

Any other suggestions?

128x128simao

Surprised no mention of the great Fred Hersch.  Check out his trio recordings for some beautifully introspective playing.  

Great thread.  Thanks to all.  I'll be back with a suggestion or two. Just started listening to Christian Pabst. My oh my....

Phronesis on Edition Records are fantastic. 
 

Check out their album ‘Alive’. 

More...

Ayumi TanakaTrio - Subaqueous Silence / Lots of space and atmosphere on this one.

Bobo Stenson has several trio recordings on ECM, from the early 90's up through the present. All are quite good.

Tord Gustavson also has several excellent trio recordings on ECM.

Joanne Brackeen - Special Identity, Keyed In, / With Jack DeJohnette and Eddie Gomez. In the early 80's, she had a quite unique approach to her playing, but then she just fell into recording way too many albums of 'standards'. Yawn...

Hiromi - The Trio Project / Wirth Anthony Jackson on bass and Simon Philips on drums. 4 albums: Voice, Alive, Move, Spark

Gonzalo Rubalcaba - The Trio / With Dennis Chambers on drums, Brian Bromberg on bass.

Gonzalo Rubalcaba - The Skyline Trio / With Ron Carter on bass, Jack DeJohnette on drums.

Craig Taborn - Light Made Lighter, Craig Taborn Trio, Chants, Flaga: Book of Angels Volume 27.

Hiromi is the closest to fusion but she has seriously frightening chops.

Gonzalo is also a beast of a player, with great feel and knowledge of the language.

Craig Taborn is probably the most introspective of the 3, and probably the most progressive.

I am getting the idea, that Taborn maybe the heir apparent to Keith Jarrett. especially his ECM releases. Not that he is a Jarrett copy or anything, but his musical philosophy seems in the same ballpark. His release, Daylight Ghosts (a quartet from 2017), and his newest solo piano recording, Shadow Plays (2021), have me thinking that way.

 

The Bad plus is certainly an awe inspiring, high energy trio. And like I wrote in the original post, Triosence is getting a lot of streaming and vinyl play on my system the past few months

@simao 

Thanks for starting this discussion. Love piano jazz and I'm familiar with many but certainly not all of the suggestions. This will provide me many days of discovery and listening pleasure.

GoGo Penguin is one of my favorite new jazz trios. Definitely one of the leading groups in the new London jazz scene. Check out songs like Raven, Control Shift or GBFISYSIH.

the gold standard is of course bill evans’s trio, especially the seminal recordings with scott lafaro and paul motian

in more recent times keith jarrett with gary peacock and jack dejohnette approach the prior standard (don’t skip the deer head inn album with paul motian sitting in for jdj)

brad mehldau’s trio is even more recent times is also quite excellent, and sets a high standard (grenadier and ballard)

chick corea’s trilogy albums are also stupendous (mcbride/blade)

i would also suggest listening to swedish pianist bobo stenson’s trio work with anders jormin on bass, with various drummers, on ecm, which is outstanding - absolutely transcendant beauty

Yes. I mean, I'm pretty familiar with the classic trios from Evans onward. I'm looking for more 21st century trios. And thank you everyone for the suggestion so far

Let me add this.  The Patricia Barber Trio.

I know many consider her a vocalist, but of course she is an excellent pianist as well.  Here is one of my favorite instrumental performances by her:

 

@macg19 I do not but thanks for the recommendation.  I will look for it soon. Cheers.

@bigtwin Maybe you also have this...Chick Corea Acoustic Band Live w/Dave Weckl and John Patitucci? Fantastic 3 record album.

Kjetil Mulelid Trio ("scandawegian" jazz trios are a fave)...and hundreds of others...I'm also Mehldau fan, I've run sound for Charlap a few times (lucky me)...Vijay Iyer is astonishing, Tyshawn Sorey (plays with Vijay often) has a killer piano trio album out sort of recently...I'm a piano trio freak. 

Without trying to be obvious, The Oscar Peterson Trio (Ray Brown, Ed Thigpen).

Keith Jarrett’s Standard Trio is one of the benchmarks for me. 
Bill Evans trios with Scott LaFaro and post-LaFaro - another benchmark 

Other great trios:

Shai Maestro

Bill Charlap

Tord Gustavsen

Carla Bley

Marcin Wasilewski

Brad Mehldau

Bobo stensons war orphans...cantando....goodbye.Some of the best recorded stuff.Ill be listening tonight!

Peter erskine trio...not quite as well recorded/mixed as bobo.

Stefano bollani trio

Danilo perez is an amazing talent.

E.S.T. though they stopped after Esbjorn Svensson's death, 

Marcin Wasilewski Trio.

 

"The Necks" are active from early 90’s and bet lil or never been mentioned here.

I have a goal to have all of their albums

@simao Can't recommend this one enough.  Chick Corea Trio "Trilogy".  A three CD set of Corea, Christian McBride & Brian Blade. recorded during a world tour.  The quality of the recordings are better than most studio works and the music is fantastic.  They released a second 2 CD set after Chick's passing that is almost as good.  

Connie Han, Bill Charlap, and Vijay Iyer.

Also a little-known pianist out of Minneapolis, Laura Caviani

All can be found on Qobuz.