All About the Trio with Ellen Rowe Trio

For several years, on Sunday afternoons at Kerrytown Concert House, Ellen Rowe (piano), Paul Keller (bass) and a variety of drummers have played and discussed everything you always wanted to know about trios. They may choose a single composer to explore or focus on a theme, like they did on November 18 with jazz standards. The house is always quite full and very engaged with the informal and interesting discussions Ellen and the other musicians lead from the stage.

SEMJA Review

Their first tune was “All the Things You Are” by Jerome Kern, followed by Gershwin’s “Our Love is Here to Stay.” On this afternoon, Sean Dobbins provided fine drumming. He said he enjoys playing all standards, especially when they are given a personal treatment, and that’s what happens with this talented trio. Rowe and Keller write their own arrangements, showing the great amount of thought they give to deciding what is a standard and which ones to play for a particular show.

Rowe said they love the lyrics, and read some of them from the stage, but were fine with not having a singer. She also enriched the discussion with spot-on quotes from Ted Gioia’s The Jazz Standards: A Guide to the Repertoire.

The trio rounded off the show with “Night and Day,” by Cole Porter, and “Here’s That Rainy Day,” by Jimmy Van Heusen. Their expertise even went so far as to tell an audience member why she loved “Body and Soul,” and to another inquiry as to why “Autumn Leaves” wasn’t on the bill, they just played it! This trio expertly demonstrated their intense love for jazz standards and why people keep coming to the exciting monthly series “All About the Trio.” They requested us to bring non-jazz lovers to upcoming shows so they can expand the audience to this great music.