Jason Palmer

Review:

This is the eightieth in a series of special Jazz on the Tube reviews of live stream performances.

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One of the top trumpeters of the past 20 years, Jason Palmer has performed on over 40 albums as a sidemen, led at least 13 of his own, and has worked with the who’s who of jazz including Roy Haynes, Herbie Hancock, Wynton Marsalis, Lee Konitz, Phil Woods and too many others to name.

Palmer would be better known except that he is based in Boston where he teaches at Berklee.

Palmer’s recent project is a set of recordings with his quintet that center around the stolen artworks from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, a robbery that took place 30 years ago.

On this LiveStream from June 14, 2020, Palmer starts out by playing unaccompanied and muted, displaying an attractive mellow tone and creating melodies along the way; he is joined halfway through each song by an electric bassist who contributes rhythmic patterns and interplay.

In between each solo/duet number is music from Palmer’s quintet album, accompanying fascinating photos and films from the Gardner Museum, showing the missing paintings, their blank frames, and effectively telling the story of the heist without saying a word.

– Scott Yanow