Truthfully, I don’t often write about Jazz records. Yet, it’s a genre close to my heart, as I spent many summer days as a teen listening to my dad’s old records featuring Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Lione Hampton, Bill Evans… that’s why coming across Steve Sandberg was a personal highlight for me. His delicate, elegant piano playing reminds me of a young McCoy Tyner, soloing over slow-paced ballads with poignant themes and a generally warm and welcoming character.
Miles away from Kenny Barron’s razor-sharp phrasing, Sandberg finds a fitting refuge in fragility and softness, getting inspired by dreams of hardship and overcoming, or just quirky experiences – all sent to him via email contribution in 2020. Steve then set out to create the perfect musical contour for such moving humanity, an endeavour that now sees the light in ‘3 Songs from the Dream Music Project’.
Featuring ‘The Man With The Quilted Face’, ‘Changing Room’ and ‘Peek-A-Boo’, the record is a slice of Jazz goodness that never lets the listeners down, providing an infinite stream of piano-powered elegance over a solid rhythmic section made up of double bass and drums. The trio dimension fits Sandberg very well, I must say.
Recommended! Discover ‘3 Songs From the Dream Music Project’ on Spotify:
