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Taylor Eigsti - Lucky to be Me |
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by Rick Holland
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 Lucky To Be Me | | Personnel:Taylor Eigsti (piano), Christian McBride (bass), Lewis Nash (drums), Julian Lage (guitar), James Genus (bass), Billy Kilson (drums), Greg Adams (trumpet), Eric Marienthal (saxophone), Brian Swartz (trumpet), Ben Wendel (tenor saxophone), Adam Schroeder (baritone saxophone), Garrett Smith (trombone). | | Tracks:Giant Steps, Get Your Hopes Up, Love For Sale, I've Seen It All, Argument, True Colors, Woke Up This Morning, Promenade, Adventure One, Darn That Dream, Freedom Jazz Dance and Lucky To Be Me | |
Taylor Eigsti
Lucky To Be Me
Taylor Eigisti’s debut release ,Lucky To Be Me, reveals a marvelous young piano phenom that wears the maturity of legends. Brilliantly produced by Al Schmidtt, and surrounded with some of the best (check out Nash and McBride’s chemistry on Giant Steps!!) musicians on the planet, Eigisti delivers a gem for the ages.
` What I love about this disc, is Taylor seems to be as comfortable as an improviser as well and as a composer and arranger. I like the fact that he is fully formed musically. He’s not out there just giving the listening audience a zillion notes (although he could), for he displays wonderful piano technique. It’s an observation, that his attention to classical training has given him a pure and articulate style. This style displays a confidence and beauty that gets translated to his listeners.
His compositions might be what you’d expect to hear from a classical and jazz blended artist. There’s the straight 1/8th feel and obvious classical references harmonically. However, so many blended artists can’t deliver on the melodic paragraphs of beautiful musical landscape. Melody is all but a lost component in the creative music world. And yet melody is the prevailing quality so many of us yearn for. I love intelligent melodic music, and Taylor delivers this in his compositions. He translates beautiful logical improvisations with these compositions as well.
Some musical highlights of this disc include his arrangement of Bjork’s “I’ve Seen It All.” Here he utilizes an alternate rhythm section of Billy Kilson on drums and James Genus on bass, and adds trumpet artist Greg Adams and saxophonist Eric Marienthal.
Another guest who appears on several tracks is guitarist Julian Lage, who, like Eigsti, has been playing professionally from a very young age. Lage lends his guitar work to Eigsti’s “Argument,” a cover of “Woke Up This Morning,” and a duet with Eigsti, titled “True Colors.”
I’m also drawn to his solo pieces “Lucky To Be Me” and his trio work on “Darn That Dream.” Certainly I hear an artist who has still many years of maturity ahead of him. But what is most noticeable, is he already understands and navigates to producing a quality sound, which lends itself to great taste. I have heard few young artists who start from this dynamic.
Lucky To Be Me, is a beautifully contrasted disc, with everything from Free Jazz to Benoit-like originals, intertwined with lovely trio and solo vehicles. I believe many will enjoy this great young artist.
For more information about the music of Taylor Eigsti, please visit:
www.tayjazz.com/
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Rick Holland |
| About the author: |
| A versatile musician and veteran performer in organizations such as the Louie Bellson Big Band (Chicago Based Band), Jimmy Dorsey, Mike Pendowski, Rob Parton , Buddy De Franco, Buselli-Wallrab and Terry Gibbs Bands, Rick Holland brings a wealth of experience and musicality to each performance. |
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