Former Bad Plus pianist Ethan Iverson finds majesty with a new jazz trio album

JAZZ

Ethan Iverson, "Every Note Is True" (Blue Note)

Best known as a founding member of the Bad Plus from 2000-17, pianist Iverson has assembled a trio with drummer Jack DeJohnette and bassist Larry Grenadier, whose sterling credentials and persistent creativity are worthy of his debut for the fabled Blue Note label. They braid nine Iverson originals and a cover of DeJohnette's "Blue" into a cohesive mix of classical, bop, swing and blues.

The wry opening ditty, "The More It Changes," co-written with Iverson's wife, Sarah Deming, and featuring an amateur choir of 44 friends over Zoom, is the palate cleanser for the majesty to follow. "The Eternal Verities" and "She Won't Forget Me" have a stately whimsy akin to the Bad Plus. "Goodness Knows" moves with the angular lyricism and spare, upbeat riffs of a Thelonious Monk tune while the rhythm section thrives on the sophisticated swing of the Ellington-like "Merely Improbable" and the blues- and gospel-tinged "Praise Will Travel."

Iverson gives the closing "At the Bells and Motley" over to their exquisite solos, having taken center stage with smooth passages of sustained notes on the waltz "For Ellen Raskin" and the amber-lit solo ballad "Had I But Known," which gently nods in the direction of Bill Evans.

Iverson performs Sunday at the Dakota in Minneapolis with Anthony Cox and Kevin Washington.

BRITT ROBSON, Minneapolis freelancer

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