Jerry and I have a long history of playing Standards. The term “New Standard” is really our take on the time-honored tradition of borrowing songs from the great American songbook and restructuring them, either by extending the forms or changing the harmonies and melodies. The whole process is pretty organic; usually we are trying to establish a certain mood or feel, and each tune presents its own unique possibilities. What we are doing is just an extension of what jazz musicians have been doing for the past 50 years. Many of our ideas emerge while we’re playing together on the bandstand, and we’re just having fun with our new takes on these tunes.
Jerry’s a musicians’ musician, and is simply one of the greatest post-Coltrane originals, a tenor titan whose sophisticated style is at once earthy and heroic. Besides leading his own band, Jerry has played with Roy Haynes, Dave Brubeck, Miles Davis, Michael Brecker and Mulgrew Miller. He is a highly respected educator and the author of 5 improv books published by Advance Music.
Renato was the pianist for Jon Hendricks for some time. He’s from Slovenia, and splits his time between New York and Verona, Italy. He’s played with all of us in various combinations since the early-1990’s. He attended Berklee on a scholarship in the early-1980’s before moving to New York, where he’s established himself as one of the best accompanists & soloists.
Santoro’s resume reads like a “who’s who” of contemporary jazz. He’s played with the likes of Tom Harrell, John Scofield, Pepper Adams, Clark Terry, Dave Liebman, Bob Brookmeyer, Bob Berg, Red Rodney, Mike Stern and Brad Mehldau. Here we see him lead his own band playing great standards in a totally new light.
Originally from Rochester and then moving to Brooklyn, NY where he established himself as a mainstay for power groups led by tenormen Steve Grossman, Ken Peplowski and Lew Tabackin. Tom has also played Herb Ellis, Etta Jones, Walter Bishop Jr., Harry Sweets Eddison and Bill Watrous. |