Young Mister Thompson Connects Spiritually With Jazz Elders

Isaiah J. Thompson‘The Power of the Spirit’ (Blue Engine Records)After a hearty meal, one is entitled to dessert. That’s what it felt like on Thursday at Dizzy’s when pianist Isaiah J. Thompson launched his latest album, “The Power of The Spirit.” Not that the rest of the meal was at all hard to swallow — it was more like eating cake rather than spinach, albeit more savory than sweet. The opening tune, “The IT Department,” is bright and buoyant, upbeat and optimistic, and goes down very easily, especially as expressed by Mr. Thompson’s tenor saxophone partner, Julian Lee. If Mr. Thompson makes one mistake regarding the song, it’s in the title — “IT” refers to his initials, yet the tune is so profoundly soulful that it deserves a more spiritual title; I would have called it “The Department of Salvation” or some such.“The Power of the Spirit” was recorded live over three sessions and three years at Dizzy’s Club between 2020 and 2022, with Messrs. Thompson and Lee joined by bassist Philip Norris, and TJ Reddick alternating on drums with Domo Branch. At Dizzy’s, the bassist and drummer were Russell Hall and Miguel Russell, who is still too young to legally consume the alcoholic beverages served at Dizzy’s.Messrs. Thompson and Lee are even tighter together live than on the album. This is an outstanding foursome that sounds like a real working quartet, with remarkable cohesion, rather than just four guys coming together for a gig. Mr. Lee, who kept reminding me, visually, of the actor Robin Hughes as “Brian O’Bannion” in the classic 1958 film “Auntie Mame,” is a formidable player who also made a solid impression as a guest member of the Toshiko Akiyoshi and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra last weekend.Together, Messrs. Thompson and Lee connect with their elders and predecessors not only musically and intellectually but also spiritually. “For Phineas” is inspired by the larger-than-life Memphis-based pianist Phineas Newborn, and “Soul Messenger” is dedicated to Harold Mabern. The latter opens with a lovely lyrical rubato introduction, in which Mr. Hall bows arco; it lasts for almost two minutes and is practically a whole piece unto itself. Mr. Lee enters playing the main theme, which pivots around a phrase that some of us older folk remember Dizzy Gillespie chanting in “Manteca” as, “I’ll never go back to Georgia.”This is Mr. Thompson’s third album, or fourth if you count “Live from @exuberance,” a two-song EP recorded when he was about 19 in 2018. “Spirit” is also his first entirely of his own original music. The Dizzy’s set included a few newer Thompson works, such as “Spring Flower,” which incorporated a contemplative unaccompanied piano solo from the same garden as Ellington and Strayhorn’s extensive series of floral works, especially “The Single Petal of a Rose.”The title song, “Power of the Spirit,” climaxed both the album and the Thursday night set. It illustrates how Mr. Thompson’s music perfectly combines the three major ingredients of jazz, philosophical and musical: the church, the dance hall, and the academy. “Power” is also prefaced by a dramatic out-of-tempo intro before we get to the meat of the piece, wherein the angular comping of Mr. Thompson behind Mr. Lee suggests the more religiously inclined playing of McCoy Tyner even as the saxophonist builds to a high-note epiphany.After “The Power of the Spirit,” the whole house was uplifted and satiated, but this is a very young quartet (Messrs. Russell, Thompson, Lee, and Hall are 20, 25, 27, and 29, respectively) with energy to spare. In what was apparently a genuinely unplanned encore, Mr. Thompson returned to the stage alone and played a haunting interpretation of “These Foolish Things (Remind Me of You).” This particular foolish thing reminded me of Mr. Thompson’s ongoing association with John Pizzarelli, who sings a wonderful version of that 1936 British standard. Mr. Thompson’s solo version incorporated aspects of both Thelonious Monk and Art Tatum, two iconic pianists who don’t sound remotely like each other. We were already on our feet cheering well before the encore even started. It was like walking out of church, feeling all sanctified and holy, and finding an ice-cream truck parked directly in front.

Young Mister Thompson Connects Spiritually With Jazz Elders

Young Mister Thompson Connects Spiritually With Jazz Elders

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