John Esposito: Blues For Outlaw Hearts

By Dan McClenaghan

March 10, 2024

 

Pianist John Esposito, the head honcho at Sunjump Records, has made part of his life's mission to feature underappreciated musicians. Guitarist Sangeeta Michael Berardi, who passed in 2024, was one of them. Berardi owed a big debt to saxophonist John Coltrane. This can be heard—leaving no doubt—on his Sunjump outing Earthship, released in 2008. In the mode of Coltrane, the music was soaring, seemingly divinely inspired. John Esposito held down the piano chair. No easy task considering the relentless uplift of Berardi's artistry. And given the Coltrane influence of that album—with tracks like "Coltrane's Love Lights Our Way," "Trane's Church" and "My Favorite Things"—John Esposito's work on the album can be said to display a McCoy Tyner leaning, with a muscular, just-finished-with-the-barbells approach to melody, rhythm and harmony.

 

Esposito's Blues For Outlaw Hearts, a piano trio outing, follows a similar path, walking in the footsteps of Tyner, who held down the piano chair in Coltrane's great quartet.

 

On a set of all Esposito originals, the trio plays like an irresistible force, its implacable nature due to, by turns, the power of the expositions and the breathtaking beauty of the collective musicianship. Drummer Peter Obrien and bassist Ira Coleman accompany Esposito with an assurance bordering on brashness on "The Naked Truth: Envision three horsemen pounding into town with free reins and fury. "Sunrise" has a caffeinated Thelonious Monk feeling, and "Longing," the set's opener, has a searching vibe—for the deity, for a love lost. Who knows?

 

The eleven-minute title tune/centerpiece serves as a highlight in a consistently excellent set. The trio displays a collective spirit and fluid majesty.

 

Recorded in a day and the morning after in the tail end of the Covid-19 "live music drought," this cohesive set has a freshness and hopped-up vibrancy that is irresistible.

 

 

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