NOAH HAIDU

Standards II

Haidu, piano; Buster Williams, bass; Billy Hart, drums. Sunnyside SSC 1739 (CD). 2024. Haidu, prod.; Maureen Sickler, eng.

PERFORMANCE

SONICS

In our present jazz moment, there is more focus on original composition than ever before. In 2023, Noah Haidu bucked the trend and released an album called Standards. It was a great example of why some of us hope that jazz musicians never entirely abandon the Great American Songbook. Now there is Standards II, and it is bolder and even better.

The first track by itself makes the case for such repertoire. It is “Over the Rainbow,” by Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg, a song beloved by the world since 1939. But it begins as a splashing, intermittently eruptive drum vignette by Billy Hart.

Then Haidu floats a piano figure into the mix, and then Buster Williams inserts a bass line of powerful notes, widely spaced. Three voices juxtapose separate threads of thought; the sounds they make are evocative but indeterminate.

From the piano, you hear suggestions of a melody, but it is out of reach. When, after seven minutes, you finally recognize “Over the Rainbow,” it is a rush. Even then, you only hear fragments; you never hear the famous interval leap at the beginning (“SomeWHERE…”).

Haidu’s trio, staying in the moment, only brushes the edges of the song. But what they play is derived from, or contains echoes of, or is inspired by, “Over the Rainbow.” The song gives their spontaneously evolving 10-minute creation a reason for being, a touchpoint.

Following tracks like “Someone to Watch Over Me” and “Days of Wine and Roses” are more literal portrayals of tunes by George Gershwin and Henry Mancini. But even here, the melodies provide a bare grid within which three daring improvisers are free to discover and dream. This sonically stunning album should be studied by aspiring jazz engineers as a model for how to record an acoustic piano trio.