HANK JONES JOINS JOHN PATITUCCI AND JACK DEJOHNETTE
FOR S'WONDERFUL ON COLUMBIA

THE DEBUT RECORDING OF THE MOST RECENT EDITION OF THE GREAT JAZZ TRIO

On June 28, 2005, Columbia releases S'Wonderful, by the Great Jazz Trio, featuring grandmaster pianist Hank Jones with bassist John Patitucci and drummer Jack DeJohnette.

Addressing a program of jazz standards and songbook repertoire, the multi-generational all-star unit, convened for the first time, plays with the mutual intuition and one-for-all elan of a working ensemble.

S'Wonderful represents the fifth installment of the Great Jazz Trio since 1975, when Jones recorded Hanky Panky with bassist Ron Carter and drummer Grady Tate. In subsequent editions, Jones has interacted with Carter and legendary drummer Tony Williams; with bassist Eddie Gomez and drummer Al Foster; and, most recently, with bassist Richard Davis and drummer Elvin Jones, Hank's younger brother, who passed away on May 18, 2004, two weeks before this recording.

A prime influence on serial generations of pianists‹Oscar Peterson, Tommy Flanagan, Kenny Barron, Mulgrew Miller and Geoff Keezer among them‹for the logic and clarity of his playing, Jones continues to project the elegance, humor, vigor, and impeccable taste that characterize his distinguished career.

At 46, John Patitucci is one of the preeminent bassists of his generation. A frequent poll-topper and two-time Grammy winner, Patitucci boasts a long list of distinguished associations, including long tenures with Chick Corea, Wayne Shorter, and Roy Haynes. His intense solos and surging bass lines lift the entire recital.

Jack DeJohnette, 62, is widely regarded as one of the greatest drummers in jazz. The leader of numerous ensembles since 1970, including Directions, New Directions, and Special Edition, and a member of the Keith Jarrett Standards Trio since 1983, he has played with many major figures in jazz history, including Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, Dave Holland, Joe Henderson, Lester Bowie, John Abercrombie, and Charles Lloyd.

On S'Wonderful, the trio addresses material drawn from various points along Jones' 70-year timeline as a working musician with a fresh, forward-oriented spirit. The title track, "I Surrender Dear" and "Lover Come Back To Me" were all repertoire staples of tenor sax king Coleman Hawkins, a long-time Jones employer, while Jones has known "Sweet Lorraine" since the Œ30s, when Nat Cole and Art Tatum‹both early pianistic influences, along with Teddy Wilson and Fats Waller‹recorded their classic versions. The trio also takes on the modern blues ("Moanin'," by Bobby Timmons); the modern ballad ("Days Of Wine and Roses"), odd time signatures (Paul Desmond's iconic "Take Five"); the spiritual ("Greensleeves," which both Hawkins and the John Coltrane Quartet with Elvin Jones recorded in 1961), and Ellingtonia (tenorman Jimmy Forrest "borrowed" "Night Train" from Ellington's "The Happy Go-Lucky Local").

Jones will turn 87 on July 31st, and he is in a particularly prolific period; S'Wonderful is one of a half-dozen releases in the first half of 2005 to feature him as a leader, co-leader, or coequal sideman. He and tenor master Joe Lovano match wits on Lovano's June release Joyous Encounter [Blue Note], with bassist George Mraz and drummer Paul Motian. On For My Father [Justin Time], he leads his working trio (Mraz and Dennis Mackrel, drums) through a discursive recital that feels like a nightclub set. Hank and Frank [Lineage] reunites him with octogenarian tenorist-flutist Frank Wess, with whom he first recorded in 1954, for Savoy. On One More: The Music of Thad Jones [IPO] Jones, bassist Richard Davis and drummer Mickey Roker propel an all-star octet of generational contemporaries (reeds, Wess, James Moody, and Benny Golson; trumpet, Jimmy Owens; trombone, Bob Brookmeyer) through 11 arrangements of repertoire by his brother, the late Thad Jones, five years Hank's junior. Finally, Collaboration [441] is the aforementioned final release of three lively, discursive albums ensuing from a May 2002 session with baby brother Elvin Jones and bassist Richard Davis.

"The magic word is listening," he says. "You gain something from every experience you have. Players of this caliber take me to a different level. I gain. I learn. I grow richer, and I can do it better the next time."