Micah Thomas

Reveal

Artwork

It seems only appropriate as we finish 2023 to have a review of a jazz pianist as one of final reviews. It has been an extraordinary year for jazz pianists and for jazz piano trio and solo albums. This new label, Artwork, in his first year boasts a Grammy nomination for Kenny Barron’s solo piano effort, Source; an imaginative 2-CD set from Sullivan Fortner, Solo Game, covered here and appearing on several Year End lists; and this, Reveal, a piano trio album, his third as a leader, for Micah Thomas, one that earned a spot in the NY Times Top Ten Jazz Albums of 2023. Although the album was released in September, there was a lag in publicity such that this writer didn’t receive promotional information until just a week ago. Better late than never; this is not an album to be overlooked.

Most of us were introduced to Thomas, the young pianist from Columbus, OH, who is a core member of the Immanuel Wilkins Quartet, that released two brilliant albums on Blue Note – 2020’s Omega and 2022 The 7^th Hand. Others noted his contribution to drummer Billy Drummond’s 2022 Valse Sinistre. Thomas also appeared on trumpeter Giveton Gelin’s 2020 True Design and played with the trumpeter at Newport Jazz in 2022. He has also recorded with bassist Harish Raghavan, guitarist Lage Lund, trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire and saxophonist Walter Smith II (In Common 2). Thomas issued his own piano trio album as a leader, Tide, in 2020 as a 22-year-old and both that one on his Piano Solo of 2022 flew a bit under the radar, certainly by comparison to Wilkins’ albums and the aforementioneds, and, as it turns out, to this one. Surely Thomas was bound to make his own statement in a year that offered so many efforts from the likes of 20-something pianists – Isaiah J. Thompson, Sean Mason, Mathis Picard, Joey Alexander, not to mention the many from generations who preceded them.

Thomas returns to the trio configuration with his regular collaborators, bassist Dean Torrey and the impossible-not-to-notice drummer from Detroit, Kayvon Gordon. This is a trio that can sound like a well lubricated one dimension all in sync machine at times and three musicians playing at totally different paces and realms that somehow make it sound cohesive at others. When Thomas accelerates, the trio mates slow down and vice versa. There are subtleties too but in these nine rather lengthy originals, we hear dense interplay with the acute ability to anticipate the other’s moves, an elevated sense of melody and harmony, and excitable improvisations. It veers more to modernism than tradition with strains of Paul Bley, Brad Mehldau, and yes Keith Jarrett, and touches of avant-garde. Thomas is open-minded, not afraid to experiment and bent on forging a sound all his own.

The album begins with “Little Doctor” (Take 2), written for his sister Hannah, with Take 1 later appearing as the sixth track. Comparing the two provides insight into how inventive the trio is as a unit, unhurried and willing to tackle rhythmic changes unfazed. The three individual voices are heard distinctly in “Look at the Birds,” where they reinvent, dissect, and reassemble the short theme, with the simpatico between drummer and pianist especially notable, culminating in an exciting repetitive loop that concludes the piece. “Lightning” is as clear an exposition of the trio’s intensity as any piece here, yet they retain just enough sense of harmonic refinement to keep it from rolling off the rails. The sense chords and rolls from Thomas’ left hand are as equally dazzling as the percussive runs and power/fluidity combination of his right with Gordon and Torrey providing a locomotive underpinning. “Eros” flows directly from the previous piece with its lengthy agitated sequences, featuring the unrelenting power of a fully alive two-handed piano accented by the bass-drum tandem, only to decelerate into a tighter, more compact lyrical statement in finale.

“Sacred Memory” is slower, emphasizing more single notes and deep emotion punctuated by robust bass notes and zephyrs of cymbal flourishes to embellish a more minimalist side of Thomas’ pianism unheard until this track, an indicator of the more contemplative material that the second half of the album offers.  “Stars” has similar sonics while “Troubled Mind,” retains its bluesy theme through the many free flowing but carefully paced improvisations. Bassist Torrey expresses himself quite definitely here. The hypnotic glow becomes arguably the most mesmerizing on the closing “Denardim,” with its alternately slow and rapid dense repetitive clusters that along with Gordon’s insistent beats that spin in our head, long after the last single piano note lingers in the air.

Don’t miss this one. Micah Thomas has already at age twenty-five established his own unique voice.

• Jim Hynes

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