Stanton Moore's Piano Trio: The Time Has Come

Long time readers of this blog will be familiar with my love for all things New Orleans. There have been many posts highlighting the exceptional musicians from this city and more than a few specifically about Stanton Moore, drummer for Galactic. Here's an interview I did with Stanton for The Huffington Post from a few years back.

I'll bet that those of you who visit New Orleans on a somewhat regular basis, whether for Jazz Fest or Mardi Gras or just to enjoy a long weekend of food and music, have your go-to artists. It's been 15 years now that Stanton Moore has been my go-to artist. I'd search weeks in advance for club dates featuring Stanton, either playing with Galactic or leading his own bad-ass funk trio with the great B-3 player Robert Walter and the ubiquitous and talented Will Bernard on guitar, or anyone of the collectives like Dragon Smoke with Ivan Neville or Garage A Trois with Skerik, Mike Dillon and old pal Charlie Hunter. If I was in New Orleans for a week, good chance I saw Stanton Moore play somewhere with someone 4 of those 7 nights.

100+ performances, with a good dozen or so different bands over 15 years, and nothing thrilled me as much as the Stanton Moore Piano Trio this past April at Cafe Istanbul in New Orleans. One main reason is that my other go-to band is the city's legendary jazz outfit Astral Project, once a quintet, now a quartet. Stanton's piano trio features Astral Project's bass player and one of the most unique and innovative bass players in all of music, James Singleton and original Project piano-player, the brilliant, melodic and always daring David Torkanowsky. I may be gushing, but this line-up is a New Orleans dream of mine and what they exhibited that night, and probably every Tuesday night at their regular residency in NOLA's Snug Harbor was beyond your piano-trio norm.

These guys are the best at what they do. They are never satisfied. Whether taking on a Monk classic or highlighting the work of legendary New Orleans musician and producer Harold Battiste, this trio makes the music of twice as many players. If a jazz trio can put on a rock and roll show and still keep the purists happy, then you know, this trio needs to be heard

Stanton and Tork have become friends of mine over the years and I've mentioned to both, possibly an irritating number of times, that this trio absolutely needs to release music.

Well, the wait is over. I implore you, please check out Stanton's campaign HERE and pass it on. This is for me, as much as it is for the band. And really, it is for you, too.