More often than not, it’s talent, vision, and plain old time spent playing together that yields the finest results in the jazz world, and the three musicians gathered here are certainly no strangers to making music collectively. Ramshackle Serenade may be this trio’s first studio record in more than a decade, but the group’s interplay is at such a high level, it’s as if these guys see each other every day. Bill Stewart, in particular, is at his most dynamically sensitive self, swinging his rear end off during “Simple as That,” playing beautiful, dramatic fills to signify the end of an organ phrase or a guitar solo entrance. On “Mr. Meagles,” his straight-8ths ride pulse is pure magic, and he injects the open spaces with constant ruffs, sidesticking, and left-foot hi-hat work. Stewart has always been a busy player, but the ear is somehow hungry for more commentary, more ideas, more rhythms. Let’s hope it’s not another ten years before this group’s next statement. (Pirouet Records)

Ilya Stemkovsky