"David Chesky's new jazz trio recording is acoustically the best ever released under his name. It is probably the best-sounding jazz recording in the history of phonography." - Marek Dusza, Audio.com

"The notes from David Chesky's piano, Peter Washington's double bass, and Billy Drummond's drums dance full of joie de vivre. Perfect natural surround sound goes without saying with Chesky, the leader in audiophile recordings." - Werner Stiefele, Audio Musik

"This is an exercise in rich keyboard exchanges with a classical foundation and a jazzy landscape. The results are an easy going, approachable session..." - Oscar Groomes, O's Jazz Place

Composer/Pianist David Chesky transforms these classical European standards into a modern jazz trio setting accompanied by two of the greatest jazz musicians today, bassist Peter Washington & drummer Billy Drummond. 

"I started my career as a jazz musician. Then I spent many years composing symphonic works and incorporating jazz into many of them. Now it gives me great happiness to reverse it – to take pieces of classical music and use them as the basis for playing jazz. It is such a pleasure to play in a trio setting with both Billy Drummond and Peter Washington who were part of my quintet Jazz in the New Harmonic. Moreover, it is great that, like me, they both are audiophiles and care tremendously about how things sound." - David Chesky

Chesky starts The Great European Songbook with the second prelude from J. S. Bach's Well Tempered Clavier (WTC). He then transforms this prelude into a new element with the addition of modern harmony. Next the trio swings hard on Bach's Fugue No. 2. The trio then takes Schiller’s “Ode to Joy” from Beethoven’s monumental Ninth Symphony and gives it a soulful “bluesy” spin. They turn the “Blue Danube” waltz of Johann Strauss into a samba from Rio. The Prelude No. 6 from Bach’s WTC has a nice 12/8 swing to it and the trio goes into a d minor blues in the middle for the improvisation part. 

The album then takes Chopin's well known Prelude No. 4 in e minor and transforms it into a harmonically sophisticated bossa nova followed by Bach's Prelude No. 1 where the trio goes back to its “bluesy” roots. Beethoven's “Fur Elise” gets the Brazilian treatment as well a complete harmonic workover. The trio ends the album with Bach famous chorale “Zion hört die wächter singen” from Bach’s Cantata 140 Wachet Auf (“Sleeper’s Awake”) that pays homage to the players of the west coast cool such as Marty Paich and Vince Guaraldi. As Chesky says, "It is amazing to me how well Bach's music sounds as jazz. Bach was the ultimate jazz player of his time, a master improviser, and his music swings. I had a marvelous time arranging and playing this music with two great friends and compatriots. I hope to tour with the trio and see the world."

The Great European Songbook features The Audiophile Society's signature Mega-Dimensional Sound™, their unique form of 3D audio. This gives the record an unbelievable sense of space and the atmosphere of an intimate jazz club whether listening on speakers or headphones. But don't just take our word for it. Experience David Chesky's The Great European Songbook today.