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Micah Thomas: Reveal

By Mike Jurkovic
January 27, 2024
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A drop mic, double plus good treatise by three very ballsy players—pianist

Micah Thomas

piano
b.1997

" data-original-title="" title="">Micah Thomas, bassist

Dean Torrey

bass

" data-original-title="" title="">Dean Torrey,?and drummer?

Kayvon Gordon

drums

" data-original-title="" title="">Kayvon Gordon—Reveal wastes no time stating its case, taking centerstage, and holding that promised land's glories tight.

Recorded in one seven-hour session,

" data-original-title="" title="">Thomas's second far-flung outing as a Blue Note leader and his third overall (the self-produced and eloquent Tide, 2019) deceptively chases the history of the piano trio then surpasses it altogether on the opening dynamo "Little Doctor (Take 2)." It lilts then picks up speed, hops then bops, twists and turns with each member locked in and, daresay, loaded. Torrey's fluid solo is airy, gritty, and full of the tones so many grand players have left behind, ie:

Chuck Israels

bass, acoustic
b.1936

" data-original-title="" title="">Chuck Israels and /or

Eddie Gomez

bass
b.1944

" data-original-title="" title="">Eddie Gomez, while Thomas and Gordon embark on stylistic displays all their own.

Studio-seasoned and road-tested, the trio is no stranger to the musical sleight of hand. Each has made their mark on such juiced-up proclaimed pronouncements as

Immanuel Wilkins

saxophone, alto
b.1997

" data-original-title="" title="">Immanuel Wilkins's Blue Note epics (Omega 2020 and?The 7th Hand?2022); not to mention

Ravi Coltrane

saxophone, tenor
b.1965

" data-original-title="" title="">Ravi Coltrane,

Sullivan Fortner

piano
b.1986

" data-original-title="" title="">Sullivan Fortner, and

Ambrose Akinmusire

trumpet
b.1982

" data-original-title="" title="">Ambrose Akinmusire. Thus Reveal's articulate sleight of hand comes with instinctive ease. Exquisite proof of that lies in the melodic outreach of "Look at the Birds" and "Eros." Thomas' touch is light yet bold. His new line of thinking, lull and rappel, brought to the fore on each of the album's impossible-not-to- experience nine performances.

Loose and muscular, Thomas, Torrey, and Gordon play beyond their years with mature harmonics and intuitive acumen like the generations before them. "Lightning" possesses a

Horace Silver

piano
1928 - 2014

" data-original-title="" title="">Horace Silver or

Lee Morgan

trumpet
1938 - 1972

" data-original-title="" title="">Lee Morgan power all its own. "Sacred Memory" is music from a holy place. "Stars" bears a more straightforward, but oddly romantic light. "Troubled Mind" may celebrate echoes of

Paul Bley

piano
1932 - 2016

" data-original-title="" title="">Paul Bley but it also puts to test all of Bley's many progressive theories. Throughout Gordon roils and rests ala

Jack DeJohnette

drums
b.1942

" data-original-title="" title="">Jack DeJohnette. "Denardirn" is a powerful recounting of all of the above and closes out Reveal on a most commanding high.

Learn more about our star rating system

Track Listing

Little Doctor (take 2); Look at the Birds; Lightning; Eros; Sacred Memory; Little Doctor (take 1); Stars; Troubled Mind; Denardirn.

Personnel

Micah Thomas

piano

Dean Torrey

bass

Kayvon Gordon

drums

Album information

Title: Reveal | Year Released: 2023 | Record Label: Artwork Records

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