Micah Thomas
Tide
Album · Jazz · 2020
Debuting as a leader in his early twenties with Tide, pianist Micah Thomas reveals at length the technical assurance and imaginative scope that have made him a prized sideman to the likes of Immanuel Wilkins, Lage Lund, Melissa Aldana and more. There’s a palpable energy in this all-original live set, recorded at the Kitano in Manhattan with bassist Dean Torrey and drummer Kyle Benford. The piano sound is full and warm, the aesthetic wholly acoustic jazz, informed by the lofty piano-trio lineage even as Thomas paints outside the lines from the outset with the tumbling phrases and churning rhythms of “Tornado”. Torrey is a prominent voice throughout, playing bowed parts and melodies (“Across My Path”) and taking adventurous out-in-front solos (“Tide”, “Wanderer”). There’s wide variety in the playfully groovy “Grounds”, the mysterious semi-abstraction of “The Day After” and the glow of the solo piano piece “Vänta”. But “The Game” is where it all comes together: intricate and unusual themes, brilliantly executed transitions and a hard-swinging burn section where Thomas fully unleashes, only to rein the trio back to a slowly unfolding detour of an ending.