(Reprinted from the August 2021 issue of Downbeat magazine)
Todd Cochran, a chameleon at the keyboards, breaks a 10-year hiatus from recording with Then and Again, Here & Now (Sunnyside). That Cochran chose to return with a standards album rather than another type of record seems significant. (Truly—he can play everything.) But these tunes, flush with lyricism and rhythmic vitality, reflect his early grounding in the blues-based innovations of mentors like John Handy, Woody Shaw and Rahsaan Roland Kirk. Not in reminiscence, but in anticipation of further exploration.
On Thelonious Monk’s “Bemsha Swing,” for instance, he anchors his galloping improvisations with a heavy-swinging bass line that opens into a deep-hued, arco bass solo. On Bobby Hutcherson's "Little B's Poem" he keeps the waltz groove on edge with unexpected harmonic tensions. And on the jazz bellwether “I Got Rhythm,” he re-harmonizes the classic changes, moves through a double-time feel, and includes an extended drum solo so articulate that you can almost make out the words. Throughout, he nods to the Songbook tradition, even as he tears down, then rebuilds, these tunes anew.
Cochran recorded these last titles with his spectacular trio, TC3, featuring bassist John Leftwich and drummer Michael Carvin. But he also devotes several of the album’s 15 tracks to solo piano; without the band, he turns “Don’t Get around Much Anymore” into a rumination on inventiveness and “You Must Believe in Love” into a stirring sonata. Cochran’s playing on these solo pieces speaks to his love of classical music, though it’s through his refreshing trio arrangement of J.S. Bach’s “Prelude XX” from The Well-Tempered Clavier that we can appreciate how deeply this love influences his understanding of jazz. The title cut, one of four brief originals, proffers Cochran’s final statement on the topic—it’s an improvisatory swirl of classical idioms, free jazz, percussive accents, and, yes, love.