BB 13: trio with Peter Washington and Peter Erskine

Three nights at Birdland Theater next week

Friday through Sunday, October 25 — 27, I’ll be playing with a special trio at Birdland Theater.

Peter Washington is one of the key NYC musicians, a bassist in the lineage of truth and swing.

Peter Erskine is a model of drum excellence, a hero to many, and has gone from powering the biggest names in fusion (he was Jaco Pastorius’s choice for Weather Report and Jaco’s own bands) to becoming one of the tastiest jazz drummers on the West Coast.

I’ve played with them both trio separately and have been delighted by their idiosyncratic choices in collaborative improvisation. They haven’t worked together all that much — and never trio, as far as I know — but can be heard in tandem on the excellent Don Grolnick set The London Concert.

I’ve written tunes for each: “Sergeant Hip” is bass feature in the Oscar Pettiford lineage, and “Kit Serene” is one of my “TV theme” sort of pieces. Erskine’s backbeat is truly something else.