The Art of Intimacy, Vol. 1 in Bloomington, MN

Jazz trumpeter
Jeremy Pelt
has explored a variety of settings on his albums, from driving acoustic hard bop to electrified funk and even electronic music. With 2020's dusky
The Art of Intimacy, Vol. 1
, he shifts gears yet again, settling into a drummerless trio format on a warmly attenuated set of ballads. The album is stark contrast to his ambitious 2019 effort,
The Artist
, which found him drawing inspiration from the sculptures of
Auguste Rodin
. Where that album showcased his ear for harmonically expansive post-bop in the vein of
Woody Shaw
, here he strips his approach down to the essentials. Joining him are two highly regarded jazz veterans, pianist
George Cables
and bassist
Peter Washington
. Both players have a long association with the trumpeter, including
Washington
being the godfather of
Pelt
's son and
Cables
having known him since right after he graduated from Berklee in the late '90s. The trio bring all of that musical and life experience to bear here on a mix of originals and lesser-played standards. The album opens with
's deceptively straight-forward "Love Is Simple." Built around a lyrical, twice-repeated eight-bar phrase, the song nonetheless affords the band plenty of room to stretch out. From there, they wrap themselves in the languid glow of the
Rodgers and Hart
classic "Little Girl Blue," with
framing
's fuzzy trumpet lines in delicately reharmonized chords and
offering a warm bowed solo. Similarly enveloping are
's Harmon-muted songs, including "Always on My Mind" (the
Johnny Green
/
Norman Newell
song, not the
Willie Nelson
tune) and the soulful
Lee Adams
and
Charles Strouse
composition "I've Just Seen Her" from the 1962 musical All American. Elsewhere, they offer a far-eyed and bluesy reading of
' "Ebony Moonbeams" and cull ever richer emotional veins out of
Lucky Thompson
's "While You Are Gone."
even pare down to a duo for the wryly improvised and painterly slow-blues "Ab-o-lutely." A perfect example of the less-is-more philosophy,
maximizes the personal and musical connections between
and his trio bandmates. ~ Matt Collar