Jazz pianist Pat Leary celebrates a sleek, bustling electric trio album

Pianist Pat Leary has played in so many local ensembles it’d be easy to lose count. These days he tickles the ivories in Latin R&B band Partywatcher and indie country outfit Thompson Springs, accompanies jazz singer Livia Gazzolo, and improvises in free-jazz quartet Heuristic with saxophonist and flutist Eric Novak, bassist Jeff Wheaton, and drummer Alex Santilli. That’s not even a complete list! Last month, Leary dropped a standout trio record, Trio, which combines his soulful electric piano with beguiling, bustling playing by the rhythm section of Wheaton and Santilli. The resulting three-song album contains two fully improvised pieces and a skittering cover of Miles Davis’s “Solar.” The trio’s sound is an intriguing mix of cocktail-bar sophistication and drifting, moody jazz fusion, and it would’ve fit in fine on the Blue Note roster in the late 60s. The trio performs on Tuesday, September 12, at Fulton Street Collective with Thwartet (pianist Erez Dressel, saxophonist Sarah Clausen, bassist Tyler Wagner, and drummer Lily Glick Finnegan). Music starts at 8 PM.

In June 2023, the Whistler’s storefront windows debuted an installation called Say Yes, which offers a dreamlike view into a cramped, homey apartment where every object is made of crocheted yarn. Created by Preeti Samraj and Jade Carrico of dark, synthy indie-pop band Rose Lake, the installation shares its name with the four-piece group’s latest EP (which came out in July). The Say Yes installation closes on Tuesday, September 12, and that night Rose Lake play a free show at the Whistler alongside Así Así.

^{The crocheted album artwork for Say Yes is by Preeti Samraj of Rose Lake.}

Gossip Wolf hasn’t heard much yet about emerging local postpunk four-piece Model Living, but bassist Matt Ciani also plays in doom-metal band Flesh of the Stars and dance-punk group Arthhur. On Friday, Model Living dropped their debut EP, Alignment, which wrings every drop of satisfaction out of its slow-boiling tension.

^{Model Living bassist Matt Ciani recorded and mixed the band’s debut EP.}