This album is dedicated to a couple of our favorite pianists who passed away in 2013: Cedar Walton and Mulgrew Miller.

Here's a little background on the tunes on our 2nd CD:

Composed by Wayne Shorter, we've never been able to locate a version performed by him.  It has the harmonic twists common to many of Wayne's compositions - the chord progression sometimes doesn't make sense on paper, but it sounds great!  It appears on the Lee Morgan album The Rumproller, with Joe Henderson on tenor.  Another recommended version, by pianist Joel Weiskopf, can be found on his album, The Search.

Dark and brooding, this piece was composed by New Orleans drummer James Black and appeared on a 1963 album by Ellis Marsalis called Monkey Puzzle.  We love this tune for many reasons, not least of which is the 5/4 time signature.

One of Josef Zawinul's most beautiful compositions, our version was inspired by pianist Warren Bernhardt's trio recording of it in 1983.  This is a feature for Scott, who takes all the usual melodic leads originally performed by Jaco Pastorius and adds an extended solo on the coda.

No idea what Martha's Prize is or was, but a hip composition perfectly conceived for the piano trio, a format which Cedar mastered.  It has his idiosyncratic use of doubled piano/bass lines, reminimescent of Hindsight, a tune from our first CD.

Based on a version by Mulgrew Miller (Live at Yoshi's, Volume 2). It's already a challenging tune, with multiple time signatures (4/4 and 3/4) - we replace the 3/4 sections with 5/4, just for fun.

From the musical, Peter Pan.  This show was not successful in its initial, pre-Broadway, West Coast tour, so director Jerome_Robbins hired lyricists Betty Comden and Adolph Green and composer Jule Styne to add more songs, including this one.

A Larry Goldings composition from the Peter Bernstein album Earth Tones, performed by the now classic organ trio of Larry Goldilngs (organ), Peter Bernstein (guitar), and Bill Stewart (drums).

Our chance to stretch out and get weird - we morph this into a 7/4 time signature.

Composed by Bill Evans, one of the inventors of modern jazz piano, this is a harmonically complex piece.  Our version is a bit slower than Bill's, but hopefully swinging.

Composed by legendary pianist Cedar Walton. One of our favorite live tunes, this one exudes exuberance.

We became aware of this tune while working on a project initiated by our friend, jazz guitarist, and composer Bruno Pelletier-Bacquaert. The premise of the project was to take a number of French popular songs and reimagine them in a jazz setting. This is a solo turn by Paul to wind down the album...