A New Yorker in Beroun

The best jazz club in Prague, the one in Beroun, Ateliér 57, continued to provide us with high class music from the other side of the ocean when New York based pianist Julian Shore and his trio, that last night turned out to be a quartet, Julian Shore – p; Martin Nevin – b; Alan Mednard – dr; Alex Goodman g, held A57 monthly concert. I picked from Julians website the following comment that JazzTimes has called this piano virutouse “one of the leaders of the young jazz piano scene”. There’s a reason for that of course, last night Julian made us aware of why, but just to make things clear, this was a quartet performing, with the focus on the word together. And yes, also I know that a good bandleader knows how to get the best out of his colleagues. They gave us was an inspiring and uplifting journey true to something that’s named modern jazz, I guess? That is not so important, but important is that we had a journey that provided us with excellent synergy and individual performances. With a mixture of original aregements of  standards and originails that also showed us that Julian is not only a master with his instrument but also a great composer. He and the whole band tied up the audience with their melodic and captivating tunes.  The two sets ended with an audience that did not ask for an encore, they demanded it, this maybe makes you understand what we experienced last night! For those of you who didn’t make it to A57 for some reason, a small hint, Julian and the trio is found at least on Bandcamp where I can warmly recommend his/their latest album Sub Rosa, released June 2025, and no, I don’t get paid to write this. Thank you Julian Shore Trio/quartet for a very pleasant experience.