Francis Hon: Before Dawn
Francis Hon Music

Had Brad Mehldau not already taken the title The Art of the Trio, Francis Hon might have considered using it in place of the comparatively less proclamatory Before Dawn. On the fifty-minute release, the Taiwan-born pianist raises the piano trio tradition to a level of high art with elegant, classically infused playing superbly complemented by the contributions of acoustic bassist Jeong Hwan Park and drummer Billy Drummond. It's hard not to hear Bill Evans in Hon's playing (especially when he expresses a particular affinity for a prototypical Evans waltz such as “Alice in Wonderland”), but while he's obviously been influenced by him and others Hon's personalized approach shows him to be more than a mere follower or clone.

The groundwork for this recording began long ago. Hon, who undertook classical study at the age of six, moved to the US in 2011 to pursue a doctorate in piano performance at the University of Texas in Austin; during that time, his love for jazz blossomed, and an intense study of Nikolai Kapustin's solo piano music, notable for merging classical and jazz idioms, evolved into something of a blueprint for Hon's own approach. The degree completed, a subsequent move to New York City to attend the jazz studies master program at New York University found Hon studying and playing with John Scofield, Don Friedman, Alan Broadbent, and Drummond, among others. As steeped in the jazz tradition as Hon is, he's not averse to letting other influences seep into his music, whether it be a song by Michael Jackson, ballad by Diana Krall, or soundtrack by Dario Marianelli.

As mentioned, Hon's an elegant player, and one noticeably sensitive to harmony and melody. There's little evidence of dissonance in his playing, and while there's exuberance aplenty it never lacks for control. There's a mellifluous quality to the album material, which could be called lounge music of a particularly exquisite kind. As pleasurable as it is to listen to Hon, the rapport between the three provides as much pleasure. Drummond in particular impresses as an excellent partner to the pianist, the drummer's playing always sensitively attuned to the moment and as tasteful as the leader's; consider the lovely cymbal shadings and hi-hat accents he adds to the closing bars of “Little B's Poem” and his playing in the graceful, waltz-styled title track as simply two illustrations of Drummond's artistry. Park's no slouch either, as exemplified by the solid anchoring he brings to the material and the lively solos he contributes throughout.

Four Hon originals are featured alongside pieces by Bobby Hutcherson, Alec Wilder and Morty Palitz, and Michael Jackson, with the vibraphonist's rousing “Little B's Poem” establishing a high bar at the outset and providing an excellent vehicle for the pianist's chiming expressions and the others' supple accompaniment. Hon's mix of ascending single-line patterns and chords lends the radiant waltz a buoyant character that makes it an ideal scene-setter. Instating the trio's democratic approach early on, concise solos are taken by Park and Drummond that never arrest the flow but if anything bolster it. A lithe, samba-like feel animates “Blue Moon,” Drummond again enhancing Hon's playing with an inspired array of textures and colourations, after which the forcefully swinging “Momentarily” adds a Latin dimension to the proceedings. Much like a nightclub date, a solo piano performance appears that in the case of “Morning Star” casts the leader in a resplendent light with wistful and in places blues-tinged lead melodies animated by rippling right-hand patterns. After a rather Evans-like rendering of “While We're Young,” the trio caps the recording with a smooth cover of Jackson's “Stranger in Moscow” that's clearly more informed by funk and R&B than jazz.

April 2018