Joey Calderazzo - The Traveler (1993)

Joey Calderazzo, at the time of this CD, was an excellent interpreter of the Herbie Hancock acoustic piano style who, although showing touches of originality here and there, had not yet developed his own voice. However this is a fine trio recording featuring Calderazzo with either John Patitucci or Jay Anderson on bass and Peter Erskine or Jeff Hirshfield on drums. Together they perform five standards, three of the pianist's originals and one song apiece by pianist Larry Willis and Patitucci. Calderazzo does show a great deal of maturity in his playing, sounding just as comfortable on uptempo versions of "Yesterdays" and his "Lunacy" as he does on the ballads. He is a superior middle-of-the-road jazz pianist whose most significant work is most likely in the future.