Piano trio jazz is one of my favorite forms of music (An Oscar Peterson trio album was actually my first or second Jazz albums ever).

 

Of course, one could easily live with the great output of Geniuses like Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett, plus Ahmad Jamal, McCoy Tyner, Erroll Garner etc. and would not need any contemporary contribution to this genre at all, and still have a lifetime of musical enjoyment.

 

However, it still feels like we are living right now in the Golden Age of the Jazz piano trio. In the last 15 years we’ve seen the emergence of such an amazing number of great trios that it is really tough to follow them all, hence this thread.

 

Obviously, given the relatively young age of most of these recordings, and the care that was given to many, there are a lot of very well recorded albums there, and these trios and their studios were among the first to switch to high-res recordings as well, so this is happy territory for the Computer Audiophile.

 

What triggered this explosion of great trios? Was it the late Esbjörn Svensson, who brought progressive and rock elements into this format and made it attractive for a younger crowd starting back in 1990? Was it the great success of the “Art of the Trio” sets by Brad Mehldau from 1995 onwards? Whatever it was, it just feels great to be where we are.

 

This thread is to capture and share great discoveries in the Jazz Piano trio, and I’m happy to start with my personal favorites.

 

I’ll just list stuff I either have or have heard elsewhere, in alphabetical order, with the only condition of being trio and after 1995, and highlight some of my personal favorites with stars. And just for the sake of simplicity; I just leave out Keith Jarrett and EST

 

• Alboran Trio (just amazing how good they are)

o Meltemi

o Near Gale (*****)

 

• Stefano Battaglia

o Bill Evans compositions

o Songways

 

• Richard Beirach

o Elm

 

• Avishai Cohen

o At Home

o Gently Disturbed

o Night of Magic

 

• Anat Fort Trio

o And If

 

• The Bad Plus

o Give

• [em]

o Live

 

• Claudio Filippi trio

o Facing North

 

• Aaron Goldberg

o Worlds

 

• Giovanni Guidi Trio

o City of Broken Dreams

 

• Tord Gustavsen Trio

o Changing Places

o The Ground (*****)

 

• Julia Hülsmann Trio

o The End of a Summer

o Imprint (****)

 

• Kari Ikonen Trio

o Bright

 

• Vijay Iyer trio

o Historicity

 

• Benedikt Jahnel trio

o Equilibrium

 

• Bob Mahmet Trio

o Impromptu

 

• Helge Lien Trio (great!)

o Hello Troll (*****)

o Natsukashii

o To the Little Radio

 

• Brad Mehldau

o The Art of the Trio I-V (I really like no. III)

o Anything goes

o Day is Done

 

• Shai Maestro Trio (one of the greatest young talents)

o Shai Maestro Trio (*****)

o The Road to Ithaca

 

• Giovanni Mirabassi (one of my absolute favorite artists, I discovered here at this forum)

o Architectures (*****)

o Live at the Blue Note Toyko (****)

o Out of Track (****)

o Terra Furiosa

 

• Enrico Pieranunzi (another of my personal favorites)

o Ballads (*****)

o Deep Down (*****)

o Dream Dance

o The Chant of Time

o First Song

o Life at the Village Vanguard

o Permutation

o Seaward

 

• Bobo Stenson Trio

o Cantando

o Goodbye

o Serenity

o War Orphans

 

• Baptiste Trotignon

o Fluide

 

• Trio Töykëat

o G’Day

o High Standards

o Kudos

 

• Craig Taborn (not really my cup of tea, but worth mentioning)

o Light Made Lighter

 

• Tingvall Trio

o In Concert (****)

o Norr

o Skagerrak

o Vattensaga

 

• Marcin Wasilewski Trio

o Faithful (****)

o January

o Trio

 

• Phronesis

o Walking Dark (****)

o Alive

 

• Reis/Demuth/Wiltgen

o Reis/Demuth/Wiltgen

 

• Rusconi

o Revolution

 

• John Taylor Trio

o Rosslyn

 

• Christian Wallumrod

o No Birch