If you want to hear what pianist Mike Longo enjoys, and how he thinks, you listen to his big band—The New York State Of The Art Jazz Ensemble—which is featured on Live From New York! (Consolidate Artists Productions, 2013); if you just want to hear Mike Longo, you listen to this trio.

Step On It is the third go-round for this group, following Sting Like A Bee (Consolidated Artists Productions, 2009) and the trio-plus-guests To My Surprise (Consolidated Artists Productions, 2011). Both of those albums contain plenty of familiar songs, as does this standards-heavy date, so some might wonder what can really be said here that hasn't been said before. The answer comes through the music and with an analogy that Longo makes: The veteran pianist shrewdly notes that "jazz is like a baseball game." Nothing is really new, yet things are different every single time the ball is in play. Participants in both scenarios react to different stimuli, creating something unique every time they get together play.

Longo and his well-seasoned teammates—bassist