Yes! Trio: Ali Jackson, Aaron Goldberg, Omer Avital
‘Spring Sings’
Jazz & People

The opening track of “Spring Sings” sounds so much like springtime that I almost feel it’s inappropriate to listen to it in October. We first hear a pattern of bass and drums, which paints a mental picture of the ice-covered ground during late winter, and then, gradually but persistently, the piano notes push their way through, like so many buds popping out along the surface.  

After this pattern is established, everything slows down and there’s a statement by the bass played arco — which almost sounds like mother nature yawning and stretching as she wakes up.

“Spring Sings” is the third album by the Yes! Trio, which is usually billed in this order: drummer Ali Jackson, pianist Aaron Goldberg, and bassist Omer Avital. In jazz, there’s a side tradition of collectives assembled with a specific musical purpose in mind, as in, very famously, the Modern Jazz Quartet, Weather Report, and, in this century, the Bad Plus.  

The Yes! Trio might be otherwise named “The Good Plus.” As the ensemble title indicates, their music is mostly upbeat and their outlook is usually positive; for instance, when they follow “Spring Sings” with a blues, it’s a swinging and jubilant melody cast in that most venerable of jazz forms.

In keeping with the trio’s spirit, there’s a slow ballad titled “Sanción” that is probing and intimate, but hardly sad, and a jaunty, medium-tempo march titled “Shufflonzo.” The album is mostly original works by Mr. Jackson, but there are two standards, including “How Deep is the Ocean,” which is not only swinging but a prime example of a modern jazz interpretation that is imminently danceable.  

“The Best is Yet to Come” also speaks to the band’s optimistic outlook. The threesome restructures Cy Coleman’s medley into a series of phrases that sound like the keyboard enjoying a call-and-response sequence with itself; sometimes it’s the piano versus the bass and drums, and at other points it’s the high treble end in contrast with the lower bass notes.  

It could, in fact, be the trio’s theme song, in that it describes how three musicians of very different backgrounds and upbringings — from Detroit, Boston, and Givatayim, Israel — can work together in the jazz idiom.  

The idea that the best is yet to come was also underpinning an all-star concert that Mr. Goldberg produced and performed in on Sunday at Le Poisson Rouge. “Jazz for Kamala” featured a dozen or so headlining stars of the jazz world, including one complete unit, pianist Robert Glasper and his trio.

Alas, the other two members of the Yes! Trio were not present, but Mr. Goldberg — sharing the keyboard not only with Mr. Glasper but the formidable Kenny Barron — played on much of the evening. For starters, he joined an all-star quartet — with tenor saxophonist Joshua Redman, bassist Christian McBride, and drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts — to host and star Dee Dee Bridgewater on an enthusiastic, electrically charged rendition of Les McCann’s funky protest song, “Compared to What.”

It was a joyous evening, full of high spirits: Mr. Glasper’s trio played a standout “Stella By Starlight,” and Mr. Barron and Ms. Bridgewater gave us a very moving duet on “You’ve Changed.” There was another, equally thrilling duet by Messrs. McBride and Redman that took us to “The Sunny Side of the Street.”

A tenor saxophone great, Joe Lovano, and Mr. Goldberg played together with Mr. McBride and drummer Al Foster — and also in a remarkable two-tenor duo with Mr. Redman that I hope someone recorded or filmed properly; it ended with some arresting, upper-register shenanigans by the saxophonist. 

There were many highlights, including cameos by a Mexican vocalist, Magos Herrera, and the young and ever-ascending Ekep Nkwelle, whom I can’t get enough of even after having seen her about a dozen times in the last year alone. 

For me, a particularly memorable moment came with a trio of venerated veterans fresh off a triumphant month at Birdland — Kenny Barron and Al Foster joined by bassist Ron Carter — gave us the equally venerated “Autumn Leaves.” We’d already seen how spring sings and swings, and now, here was proof that autumn does too.