Pat Coil - How Deep is the Ocean — Review

How Deep Is the Ocean

Burton Avenue Records

Pat Coil is a world class keyboardist, composer and educator, with an extensive multi-genre resume, including work with everyone from Woody Herman, Trisha Yearwood, to Tribal Tech and Michael McDonald. How Deep Is the Ocean is an exploration of the classic piano trio format featuring Coil’s original tunes and reinvented classics. With accompaniment by the inimitable Danny Gottlieb on drums, and young phenom Jacob Jezioro on acoustic bass, this album is living, breathing proof that jazz is alive and well. The project was produced by Jack Jezzro and recorded and mixed by Brendan Harkin, both longtime Local 257 members, at Harkin’s Wildwood Studio, where many great Nashville jazz recordings have been made over the years. The excellent sound of this record is inviting, and the music is as inspiring and real as it gets.

These three virtuosos effortlessly trade roles supporting each other’s improvisational flights throughout the album. The title track, written by Irving Berlin, features ostinato piano/bass figures that serve as a launching pad for Coil’s melodic excursions, with exquisite cymbal work from Gottlieb, whose resume includes Gary Burton, Pat Metheny, Eberhard Weber, and many other jazz greats. Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now” gets a beautiful arrangement, demonstrating Coil’s uncanny ability to reharmonize familiar melodies, with a gentle swing from the rhythm section, giving it a fresh new sound that begs for repeated plays.

“Chelsea’s Dream,” a Coil original, has a lush intro that morphs into a gentle Latin inspired groove driven by Gottlieb’s insistent side stick, with Jezioro’s nimble solo dancing between the piano and drums. “Cry Me A River” is given a beautiful treatment, with lots of space left between the notes, and the ebb and flow between the trio is flawless. Coil’s elegant arrangement of “Prelude in E Minor” is simply beautiful, followed by “Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers.” This sweet, yet sad, melodic ballad by Stevie Wonder was famously covered by Jeff Beck many years ago, but Coil’s version more than holds its own.

“Bye, Bye, Blackbird” is given a fresh treatment with Jezioro doubling Coil’s left-hand figures perfectly before launching into a sweetly melodic bass solo. The album draws to a close with Coil’s original, “Hope, Sweet, Hope” adding a gospel flavor to the proceedings, with Gottlieb’s brush work floating around Coil’s heartfelt melody and elegant chord changes. This album is a great example of musical teamwork in every way, and the results are timeless. More, please. —Roy Montana