A welcome release for those who already know Kate’s work and a must have for anyone interested in top drawer piano trios.

Kwjazz228 – Available from Bandcamp

Kate Williams (piano); Oli Hayhurst (double bass); David Ingamells (drums)
Recorded July 2025

Pianist and composer Kate Williams boast a small but hugely impressive discography with her previous release being the excellent Finding Home with Kate Williams’ Four Plus Three with Georgia Mancio featuring piano trio, string quartet and voice.

Here the pianist is in a more familiar trio setting playing eight of her own compositions and an arrangement of Fats Waller’s ‘Jitterbug Waltz’ with an album that positively sizzles with invention and great melodies.

Never content to be a carefree blowing session, although there are chances for the three musicians to take some wonderful solos, Kate’s compositions are beautifully crafted and structured with each member of the trio having a prescribed role within the ensemble giving the music a shape and clarity that is a pure joy to listen to.

Kate’s melodies seem to take on a life of their own when performed by the trio, and each composition is allowed to evolve and reveal the colour in their own time. This is particularly evident on ‘Snowdrops To Wintersweet’ which is an exquisite ballad full of delicacy and lyricism, and the title track that opens and closes the album with a fine dialogue between bassist Hayhurst and Williams.

‘A Rose-Tinted Spectacle’ is atmospheric and somewhat ambiguous with a delicious sense of tension and release felt through Ingamell’s sensitive use of brushes and sticks in his commentary, while the trio blend together impeccably in the lightly swinging ‘Soon Enough’ and the more propulsive ‘Taker’s Dozen’  which again features some excellent playing from the drummer and a masterful solo form from the pianist.

Kate again steals the limelight on ‘In Sight’ which features a teasing melody that leads into another swinging performance and solo from Kate complete with a passing reference to ‘Surrey With The Fringe On Top’.

A welcome release for those who already know Kate’s work and a must have for anyone interested in top drawer piano trios.