Mike Longo

On his first live album, 63-year-old pianist Mike Longo turns in a foolproof trio session devoted entirely to standards. "My Funny Valentine" and an extended medley of songs from +Porgy & Bess are included, but for the most part the selections are jazz evergreens by Longo's longtime employer, Dizzy Gillespie ("Fiesta Mojo," "Tin Tin Deo," "A Night in Tunisia"), Thelonious Monk ("Rhythm-A-Ning," "'Round Midnight"), John Coltrane ("Trane's Blues"), and Wayne Shorter ("Footprints"). This is such familiar material from the bop and post-bop eras of the '50s and '60s that the question immediately becomes: What can Longo and his cohorts -- bassist Santi Debriano and drummer Ray Mosca -- do with it that hasn't been done before? The obvious answer -- at least with the Gillespie, Coltrane, and Shorter tunes -- is that they can present the songs in piano-trio arrangements when they were first written for horn bands. That in itself gives the music a very different feel. But Longo also distinguishes himself on the piano-based Monk compositions, while never turning away from Monk's own interpretations. Longo is as much a jazz educator as he is a jazz musician, and this album can be seen in some ways as a class in the basics of bop, at least as it applies to the piano trio. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide