With Jacob Sacks and Masa Kamaguchi

I’m a serial band-joiner and compulsive band-former. For 15 years, I’ve been a part of a collective trio with bassist Masa Kamaguchi and pianist Jacob Sacks. Tonight and tomorrow night, we play in Brooklyn in preparation for our tenth (!) album together.

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If you don’t know Jacob Sacks and Masa Kamaguchi, check out Jacob’s record with Paul Motian, Two Miles A Day (a reference to Paul’s daily morning runs), or his own Fishes on CleanFeed. To hear Masa, there’s the Adam Kolker/Russ Lossing Whispers and Secrets on Fresh Sound, and a beloved session led by pianist Frank Kimbrough on Palmetto called Play which pairs Masa with Motian. Strange to realize that Masa is the only one alive today from that session.

Jacob, Masa, and I first recorded together at Fresh Sound Records owner Jordi Pujol’s behest, in the summer of 2008. I finagled my way overseas and met Jacob and Masa in Barcelona for my first experience making a record the old-fashioned way: show up, call a tune, talk it down, and record. No rehearsal, no second takes, no sheet music, no discussions— just shared knowledge and listening.

Somehow, it came together. We’d discovered a band— the trio of Jacob, Masa, and I, and our silent fourth member, Jordi Pujol, who released the session in 2011 as Barcelona Holiday.

In 2012, Masa was in NYC, so I called Jordi and proposed a follow-up. Happily, he went for it, but on one condition— we do all Cy Coleman tunes. Cy Coleman? Jordi sent a list of Coleman tunes he wanted us to record, none of which I knew, except “Witchcraft”. But we went for it, and again, it somehow came together.

So, from 2014 to 2020, every 12 months or so, Jacob, Masa, and I were in Michael Brorby’s Acoustic Recording in Brooklyn, cooking up a songbook record. Jordi suggested Johnny Mandel, which we recorded while Jacob was injured and could only use his left hand (I overplayed on this one, apologies). Tadd Dameron was the first jazz composer Jordi suggested, while Lee Morgan was our idea, but Jordi is a Lee Morgan fanatic, so it was a no-brainer. Benny Golson and Sonny Rollins were ours— you can really see Jacob’s fingerprints in the tune choices— and then finally we did Harold Arlen and John Coltrane on the same day in January 2020.

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If you’re in town tonight, Tuesday September 17 or tomorrow night, Wednesday September 18th, we’ll be playing at Ibeam (the gigs should be on the website now), getting ready for an album of compositions by the great pianist Elmo Hope. This is our first time together since 2020, and a chance to deepen our connection to the music, to each other, and to our listeners. I’m honored to be playing with Jacob and Masa. You can’t make new old friends, you can’t form new old bands.