Pilc Moutin Hoenig

While the piano trio reigns historically classic in jazz (from Oscar Peterson to Bill Evans), the setting has opened up and offers a promising soundscape teeming with engaging improvisation. Key to success comes when the pianist, bassist and drummer share a compatibility of deeply feeling the music. Innovation is born and adventure follows into brilliant unpredictability.

Into this rarely traveled trio sphere, the legendary ensemble Pilc Moutin Hoenig arises again with its first album in 12 years, YOU Are the Song will be released on May 12, 2023. The collective trio of pianist Jean-Michel Pilc, bassist François Moutin and drummer Ari Hoenig embarks on its dynamic and exhilarating mash up of on-the-spot originals (“Thin Air,” “Searing Congress”) and reharmonized, shifting tempo takes on such cherished standards as John Coltrane’s “Impressions” and Thelonious Monk’s “Straight No Chaser.” It’s not free jazz as some listeners from its three-decade career assume, but at its emotive heart, the trio’s album with all three artists serving as leaders follows melodic forms, fuels with a unique rhythmic vitality, powers into playground antics and ventures into uncharted sonic territory.