A mere dozen years since their last album, pianist Jean-Michel Pilc, bassist François Moutin, and drummer Ari Hoenig reconvene for YOU Are the Song. As before, the threesome hit the studio without a game plan, spontaneously taking on a variety of standards and some improvised originals (though unlike 2011’s Threedom, this time out the former trumps the latter). This isn’t disorganized chaos, however. Having played together since the nineties (and, in the case of Pilc and Moutin, known each other since the eighties), the musicians know how to listen and react to each other, playing off each player’s strengths and sharing similar senses of humor, melody, and time. No matter how adventurous they’re feeling, from the rambunctious take on John Coltrane’s “Impressions” or the jaunty, mischievous original “Thin Air” to the sly version of Thelonious Monk’s “Straight No Chaser” and a gorgeous “My Romance” – the trio always locks right into each other, three sets of limbs pursuing one artistic goal. YOU Are the Song makes it clear: Pilc Moutin Hoenig shouldn’t stay away for so long next time.
