Cyrus Chestnut

4 STARS DOWN BEAT (March 2011)

No one would make a case for pianist Cyrus Chesnut as a styling innovador or artistic rebel. Though he swims in the mainstream. Chesnut's keyboard explorations are not rowboat exercises. He's a master of melodic and rhythmic invention with an endless reservoir of dynamics. The soft touch alone can caress, whisper or plead. When he chooses to unleash his strong left hand on a  galvanizing swinger like "New Light", it's full-throttlr propulsion. Exceopt for "Lover", all the tunes are Chesnut originals. As songs they might not attract interpreters, but as trio features they're more than adequate.
Much is made of Chesnut's gosped background but nowhere in this collection are there overt gospel devices (like, say, Les MsCann's patented minor thirds), maybe in some ballad passages of "In The Still Hours" and "Goliath". Swing abounds but Chestnut doesn't  need to pound bass chords to achieve it. His right hand dances through "Little Jo", a musical party that recalls Erroll Garner at his most deligtful.
This is a collection brimming with subtleties, and not just in the soft numbers. A couple of bars of block chords on the title number manage to be both rhythmic and lyric at the same time. His comping sticks and moves in an intriguing way, playing with placement and phrasing. "Eyes Of An Angel", an introspective waltz, conjures treble cascades that sparkle and whirl. For the deep listener, Chestnut has provided a pageant of near recessed delights. - Kirk  Silsbee