Taylor Eigsti is a piano prodigy. He is 19 years old. Eigsti's goals is for people, especially those under 25 years old, to look at jazz in a different light.
Listening to the opening moments of Resonance, the Bop City debut of piano whirlwind Taylor Eigsti, is scary enough -- those incendiary octaves that ignite "Got a Match" into a postbop firestorm.
Taylor Eigsti (pronounced Ikes-dee) is still, at least by some standards, a kid, and still a nice guy who likes to do guy-type things. By day he mills through mobs of fellow students at the University of Southern California; although he's a jazz studies major, he admits that his jones for football may have helped lure him toward Trojan country. "Football is my second love," he says, maybe a little embarrassed. "I've always had that dream of playing college ball, or even in the NFL."
He's got a girlfriend, he's got buddies he hangs out with, his grades are solid. He's a normal person for his age, in all ways but one
He is, already, one of the most exciting jazz pianists on the planet. Not young jazz pianists -- we're talking about the whole tribe. Lick for lick, voicing to voicing, Eigsti can stand up to and trade fours with just about anyone alive at the ivories.
The evidence is all over Resonance, on which Taylor, bassist John Shifflett, and drummer Jason Lewis whisper, stroll, strut, and blow through a set of familiar and original tunes. Each arrangement leaves plenty of room to stretch; as a result, all three hit extraordinary levels of interplay. Whether tearing it up on "Oleo," building intricate harmonic reflections on "Somewhere," or taking a fresh look at "Angel Eyes" through a prism of 7/4 rhythm, this trio makes it clear that, to quote Mercer Ellington, "Things Ain't What They Used To Be."
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