Dave Peck

KPLU 88.5FM, NPR and the Pacific Jazz Institute at Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley present pianist Dave Peck for one night, debuting his new release, Modern Romance. Joining Mr. Peck are Jeff Johnson on bass and Joe La Barbera on drums. Set time Monday night, June 14, at 7:30pm and doors open at 6:00pm.

Pacific Northwest pianist Dave Peck returns to Jazz Alley to debut his newest recording Modern Romance. Recorded live at Jazz Alley in the fall of 2007 this set of standard songs from the Great American Songbook continues the trio’s exploration into the reinvention of the jazz piano trio. Both rhythmic and romantic, the trio uses the standard repertoire as a framework for new composition and form. Their work is rich, intuitive, and harmonically complex with a unique and signature sound. Peck who is known for his deeply introspective and passionate style and for his focus on the profound beauty he finds in the narrative of this music has been lauded by the jazz press for his award winning CD’s.

The trio brings to this set of familiar standards a modern and fresh approach. Peck and Johnson have each discovered creative ways of playing. They have conceived their own dialect which they speak at every moment with true and pure improvisation. With the addition of Joe La Barbera the trio becomes grounded but not contained. Three original voices thoroughly influenced by the past and by their experience and yet newly invented at each performance. This is jazz.

Modern Romance is surprising and beautiful and comes to the listener in a swinging and easy way. The songs are love songs, old love songs but the interpretation is distinctly contemporary.