KATE WYATT TRIO

MURMURATIONS

Independent Label

Kate Wyatt, piano/composer; Adrian Vedady, bass; Louis-Vincent Hamal, drums.

Meet Kate Wyatt, a celebrated Montreal-based jazz pianist and composer.  Her new album, “Murmurations” delivers a collection of original compositions by each member of her stellar trio.  However, the first song surprises with an unusual and highly creative arrangement of “Mack the Knife.”  The arrangement is so creative that I didn’t recognize the song at all until nearly the end of the seven-and-a-half minute presentation.  It was absolutely beautiful, although totally re-imagined.

“I first listened to the Three Penny Opera with Lote Lenya when I was in my early twenties. Later, as a professional jazz musician I ended up playing this tune a lot.  Finally, in the summer of 2024, I decided to learn the lyrics.  I was taken with the savage nature of the lyrics, the brutality.  I went to the piano and I came up with these alternate-chord changes almost instantly.  I love how Kate and Louis-Vincent capture my arrangement of this jazz classic,” says the song arranger and bassist on this project, Adrian Vedady.

Kate Wyatt offers us an album of modern jazz with explorational arrangements that tickle my brain and inspire my imagination.  Wyatt’s inspiration for this very creative album was nature’s spectacle of birds moving in unison across the sky.  Like flocks of birds that shift and turn as one, this trio seems to move and breathe singularly as well.

“I’ve long been fascinated by the phenomenon of murmurations, nature’s spectacle of birds moving in telepathic unison. … like when a group of musicians move …responsive, trusting and deeply attuned to the moment,” Kate Wyatt explains her inspiration to write the title tune.

Wyatt’s debut album was “Artifact” and received glowing reviews.  It was a quartet project and was featured on a number of Best Jazz of 2022 lists. I believe this current release will provoke the same excitement and celebration.

Her album cover is provocative.  The two faces, blended into one gives me a sense of a split personality or a duality of purpose. Her tune called “Coruscation” has a catchy bass line that introduces this original composition.  The title means a sparkling, glittering light, like the play of sunlight on water. The drummer, Louis-Vincent Hamel pumps the tune forward with a rhythm that reminds me a bit of early Ahmad Jamal recordings.  Wyatt’s piano mastery is ever-present and mesmerizing. Hamel is given time to shine during a provocative drum solo.

There is peace and love weaved into each of these arrangements that endears these songs to my heart.  Kate’s tentative, but very engaging piano playing has a way of hypnotizing and drawing me into each of these tunes, especially ones like “Murmuration,” “Finding” and “Patience,” where the creativity and lovely bass work of Adrian Vedady is pronounced and appreciated. Kate Wyatt’s piano solo soars during the “Patience” arrangement.  Her solo interpretations are full of passion.  To close this tune out, she invites her drummer to lend his excitement and excellence to the arrangement. Here is an album full of surprises, colorful and creative with great original compositions offered by all three musicians. They create a sound and style of their own that mesmerizes and fascinates the spirit.

Reviewed by Dee Dee McNeil

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