Stanton Moore, Conversations

[Tom Storer]

Stanton Moore, Conversations (Royal Potato Family records)

Stanton Moore, drums; David Torkanowsky, piano; James Singleton, bass. 2014.

We all know the trademark New Orleans drum style, featuring the famous "second-line beat": that sly, bouncing, instantly recognizable brand of syncopation that propels brass bands and gets the parade followers moving. It's a cleanly articulated, ceaselessly dancing approach that always evokes, to me, both tap-dancing and juggling: the rhythms constantly thrown out to the edge of imbalance, always recovered just in time with deft improvisational control and joyous energy. These are the roots of swing, that developed over the decades into so many different things: one can hear it underpinning the playing of drummers as varied as Jo Jones, Vernell Fournier, Max Roach and Ed Blackwell.

How rare, though, to get the chance to listen to this drumming style all through a full-length jazz trio CD. Stanton Moore, well known for his work with New Orleans funk bands (and several cameo, on-stage appearances in the HBO series "Treme"), gives us a chance to do so with "Conversations," accompanied by pianist David Torkanowsky and bassist James Singleton, both highly reputed veterans of the New Orleans scene. Moore's version of second-line is distinctively and audibly New Orleans, but he is also a modern drummer with the resources that implies--this is not Preservation Hall by any means.

It's a very fine CD, not to be missed by aficionados of the drums. "Conversations" is an appropriate title. The three musicians share the same Big Easy pulse; they instinctively move together. Moore has many breaks and solos in which to do his thing in the spotlight, but it's a real trio, with Torkanowsky and Singleton contributing equally. And Moore continues to dance interactively during the head arrangements and the solos by his companions. Some examples of this are the exciting opener, "Lauren Z"; his playing, with brushes, under the bass solo on "Tchefunkta", before his own exciting solo; and his conversation, again on brushes, with the piano in "The Chase."

"Magnolia Triangle" by N.O. drummer James Black (and memorably covered twenty years ago in Ellis Marsalis's "Whistle Stop," a quartet record with Jeff "Tain" Watts on drums) is in 5/4, and sounds barely less second-line for it. At mid-point in the CD, "Waltz for All Souls" is a long, mournful piece that one imagines being played on the procession on the way to the funeral. "Paul Barbarin's Second Line" is what they might play on the way back, proud New Orleans stepping all the way but over a base of metric trickery.

In all, an absorbing and thoroughly enjoyable piano trio CD of confident, exuberant New Orleans music with at its center a superb drummer specializing in that exacting and infectious style.

[Ron Thorne]

Thanks so much for that enthusiastic, provocative, intriguing review, Tom. As a drummer and lover of piano trios, you've made me more than curious to hear this new recording.

You are a wordsmith, my friend.