Cyrus Chestnut - There’s a Sweet, Sweet Spirit

The Guardian 80

(High Note)

It runs for exactly an hour, but there’s so much variety here, packed into what is essentially a piano trio album, that it seems over in half the time. There are jazz pieces by Monk, Miles Davis and others, an improvisation on a prelude by Chopin, a Stylistics soul classic, an original or two, and so on. And they all flow together quite naturally under the mellow influence of Cyrus Chestnut’s piano. Vibraphonist Steve Nelson joins in brilliantly on three numbers, with Chestnut quite content to play the unobtrusive accompanist when necessary, and the whole show closes with a gospel anthem, played as a rapturous piano solo.