Taylor Eigsti - Lucky To Be Me

[GA Russell]

Taylor Eigsti's Lucky To Be Me is the second of three albums Concord released April 4 to more than the usual amount of fanfare. Somehow I got the idea that Eigsti is a singer/pianist following in Harry Conner, Jr.'s, footsteps. This is not correct at all. Eigsti is a pianist only.

Lucky To Be Me has twelve songs, five of them piano trio with Christian McBride on bass and Lewis Nash on drums.

The songs are accessible to the jazz novice, but this is real jazz, not schlock aimed at people who don't like the real thing. The songs include jazz standards like Giant Steps, Love For Sale, Darn That Dream and Freedom Jazz Dance.

As I recall, the press releases I received said that Eigsti is 21 years old. He looks like a clerk at Borders. I'm guessing that the market for this album would be the high school and college student who might be interested in starting to listen to jazz, but wants to relate to someone young, not his father's or grandfather's jazz heroes.

When I was in high school and college, many of the acts trying to appeal to the masses were either Ramsey Lewis-type trios or organ combos, in both cases playing cover versions of rock and r&b hits of the day.

Taylor Eigsti is better than that. As a pianist, he's not going to make anyone forget Bill Charlap. When he is too old to look like a Borders clerk I'm not sure what his future in the business will be. But for now, I think that this album would be an excellent gateway to jazz for the market I described above. I wouldn't recommend it for the people here, but I would recommend it as a gift for a young person you would like to introduce to jazz.

[T.D.]

I think Taylor Eigsti's a prodigy of sorts, and has released at least a couple of prior albums. I saw/heard him live about a year ago. Definitely "real jazz", had a lot of technique, but didn't swing very much or consistently IMO.

[sal]

My reaction to his music is similar to when I first heard Johnny Lang about 10 years ago. Definitely some talent there, but not much to say....at least not yet.

[GA Russell]

The Freedom Jazz Dance track was nominated for a Grammy today for Best Jazz Instrumental Solo.

[GA Russell]

I now see that the track Argument was nominated for Best Instrumental Composition.

[Spontooneous]

All of which proves, as if we needed more proof, that the Grammy nominators have listened to few instrumental compositions and few instrumental solos this year.