james vernon

when johnny case suggests i check out a jazz pianner player, better believe i listen. so when the self-released house of jazz ceedee by the james vernon trio arrived over the transom, i was prepared to listen, johnny having pulled my coat to it a few weeks in advance. dallas-based vernon is classically trained (cites bartok, stravinksy, and nancarrow as inspirations), but his most audible influences are the posse of late-'60s / early-'70s miles davis sidemen that include herbie hancock, chick corea, and keith jarrett, and the whole contemplative-meditative school o' playing that we associate with the ecm label (for whom jarrett cut in the '70s). now, some of that stuff veered dangerously close to the kind of insipid pastoralism that we associate with "new age" musick, but you needn't worry about that where mr. vernon is concerned. au contraire, his shiny silver disc opens with the most oblique refraction of "my favorite things" you're likely to hear in this lifetime -- enough to make coltrane's classic modal deconstruction of the toon sound like "music box dancer" or one of those -- and in general, vernon's music stays considerably to the left of george winston territory, thank de good lawd. vernon's serious about his craft -- he lists the _microphones_ they used in recording this, for pete's sake -- and with whom he chooses to collaborate (in this case, bassist kyp green and ex-master cylinder drummer, current mondo drummers mastermind eddie dunlap). a worthwhile listen whenever you're having a ponder, and you can cop it online from cdbaby.