Late Regulars
Club Helsinki Hudson
Hudson, N.Y.
Monday, May 4, 2015

Review and photos by Seth Rogovoy
(HUDSON, NY.) –The Late Regulars, a new jazz trio featuring three of the Hudson area’s finest instrumental and improvisational talents, made its low-key debut on Monday night at Club Helsinki Hudson. Drummer Otto Hauser, bassist Terrence Murren, and pianist Tony Kieraldo played a gorgeous hour or so of post-bop jazz and original compositions that fit right in with tunes by Chick Corea, Wayne Shorter, Sam Rivers and Ornette Coleman.

While each musician had his featured moments, what was immediately striking about the trio was the way in which it worked together as an organic entity. Hauser constructed a delicate latticework of percussion above Murren’s harmonic bedrock, atop which Kieraldo painted colorful melodies.

Hauser’s “Chronicle” was a highlight of the evening, a kind of extended rubato exercise, sounding like a poem being written in the moment. Kieraldo and Murren seemed to move the piece along harmonically, while the remaining musicians followed with soft blankets of sound.

Kieraldo’s “Brazil” began recognizably as a bossa nova and maintained that pulse throughout. But the pianist veered off chordally into surprising regions – as if he were leaving Brazil and going to neighboring countries — without every losing the pulse or the central spirit or focus of the tune. This wasn’t “Girl from Ipanema”; it was a lot more interesting.

Throughout the evening the trio emphasized the pretty, ethereal, suggestive side of their music, including an adventurous take of Wayne Shorter’s “Nefertiti” and several Corea tunes.

Those who were there on Monday night witnessed the birth of something cool. Very cool.