Isaiah J. Thompson brings APA's Premiere Series to a splendid close

Isaiah J. Thompson and local band mates at the Jazz Kitchen 

Typically, the finalists in the American Pianists Association Premiere Series make a thank-you speech that extends gratitude to a variety of local supporters. But though Isaiah J. Thompson seemed happy to be at the Jazz Kitchen, he made little attempt to flatter anyone besides directing applause to his trio assistants Saturday night: bassist Nick Tucker and drummer Kenny Phelps.

He also made explicit his indebtedness to  his hall-of-fame keyboard heroes, including Thelonious Monk and Horace Silver. Thompson has forged connections to the New York City jazz scene already, and at 25 plays with a keen sense of how he wants to sound and how he wants to use his influences to help mold his artistic personality.

In his second set, he showed off his fresh imagination, taking Billy Strayhorn's "Chelsea Bridge" to new places, not painted in the usual pastels. The pianist started out in a reflective vein, but after two brilliant choruses of Tucker's solo, crossed into a funky neighborhood. Unexpectedly, it worked.

He has an unabashed  interest in delicacy of touch sometimes, as was evident throughout "A Handful of Stars." His treatment was inspired, he told the audience, by the way Nat King Cole performed the song. This gentle manner of treating ballads also came through in his unaccompanied encore, an exquisite "These Foolish Things."

The trio emphasis, the last of the Jazz Kitchen gigs that are  such an important part of the APA competition, concluded with Silver's "Senor Blues." Enlivened with a tricky, forward-plunging rhythmic arrangement, the hard-bop classic was climaxed with Phelps' focused tribute to Latin percussionists who bring the crispness of rims, tom-toms, and wood block to the fore.

Tucker's mastery of walking bass got plenty of exposure in Tadd Dameron's "Our Delight," in which Thompson's playing was bouncy, inspired and delightfully witty. The gift of humor got an original display in the pianist's own "The Cakewalk Dilemma." That  piece, as he explained, recalled the reciprocal mockery, unrealized by the other side, of whites and blacks in the social dancing of the Old South. The performance was both ceremonious and gut-bucket — a wide range, indeed, and covered with mastery by the trio.

A mad rush through "Aki's Blues," representing Indianapolis through the muse of Buddy Montgomery, was a well-chosen follow-up to the set's curtain-raiser, the pianist's drolly titled composition "The I.T. Department." Information technology on a human scale is what Isaiah Thompson seems to be all about.

All five finalists will be back in town in April for the Club Finals and the Gala Finals. At the conclusion, the 2023 Cole Porter Fellow in Jazz will be announced to continue the APA's distinguished jazz-piano tradition. 

[Photos by Rob Ambrose]