Danny Grissett, Travelogue Review

Danny Grissett’s Travelogue:  A Sense Of Pacing

by Nolan DeBuke

Danny Grissett’s Travelogue is an album built on destinations and their transitions, those subtle, often imperceptible shifts where memory, rhythm, and melodic form coalesce into a cohesive musical language. Now based in Vienna after formative years in New York and Los Angeles, Grissett channels decades of experience into a piano trio record that is technically exacting and deeply expressive. With bassist Vicente Archer and drummer Bill Stewart rounding out the lineup, Travelogue is as much about refined trio synergy as it is about musical narrative.

Grissett’s writing across the album is grounded in clarity: melodies are well-shaped, harmonies are colorful but never overcrowded, and structural pacing is clean. But it’s the underlying rhythmic design with how feels evolve, how forms cycle, and how the trio navigates transitions that reveal the depth of the record. These tunes play like miniature suites in architecture.

Take “Wonder Wander,” an early standout. Grissett opens with a pianistic figure that is equal parts post-bop and European jazz, harmonically fluid but grounded in a rhythmic grace. Archer’s entrance in rhythmic unison underscores the strength of the opening groove, initially set in straight eighths. As the tune progresses, the feel shifts naturally into modern swing with a subtle, felt evolution rather than a sharp cut. Grissett’s solo balances rhythmic stabs in chordal textures with elegant, melodic single-line development, and Stewart’s solo that follows completes the arc by weaving both rhythmic vocabularies, straight and swung, into a cohesive statement.

On “The People in the City,” the compositional focus is the melody: simple, catchy, and rhythmically buoyant. It’s lyrical without leaning sentimental, grounded in the kind of melodic logic that recalls mid-period Kenny Kirkland or Brian Blade Fellowship writing. What elevates the track is the harmonic motion beneath, a chordal progressions that color the melody with depth and shade, all of which carry through into the solos. This is a thematic setting that invites interpretation without losing form or focus.

“Picture in Picture” reflects the trio’s internal chemistry. The track opens with an exchange between bass and piano, soft harmonic pastels rendered in sensitive dialogue. Stewart’s brushwork subtly shapes the frame. Then, on a cue from Grissett, the group transitions into a medium-up feel with shifting rhythmic accents. These formal modulations, into and out of two distinct grooves, are executed seamlessly, with Grissett returning to the original motif to cue Archer’s expressive solo. The transitions here are smooth, logical, and grounded in the composition’s DNA.

“The After Hours” leans into modal language, with open voicings and extended tensions creating a mysterious atmosphere. The composition’s tension-and-release logic is baked into the framework and the improvisations. Grissett shapes his solo with harmonic patience, moving through color shifts with a deep sense of pacing. Stewart’s drumming here is forward-moving and textural, but felt more in implication than attack, which leaves space for the harmonic movement to drive the mood.

Closing the main body of the album is “Spin Cycle,” a well-structured piece built on a cyclic framework. The melody, rhythm, and harmony all pivot around recurring figures, making the tune feel like a revolving landscape. Archer’s straight-eighth bass pulse serves as the axis, around which Grissett and Stewart develop variations. During Grissett’s solo, Stewart’s drumming becomes an active commentary, responding not just to motifs but to energy and articulation. It’s a flow in trio interaction within a fixed form and how variation and engagement can keep repetition alive.

The album’s two interludes, “Inbound” and “Outbound,” serve as gentle framing devices, balancing pacing while reinforcing the travel motif. They’re smartly placed, functioning like chapter breaks in a well-edited book.

Across Travelogue, the trio functions as an integrated system. Archer is a grounding force as he never overplays, always anchoring. Stewart, known for his rhythmic imagination, plays with a joyous passion, shaping space and flow with the maturity of someone who understands when and what to play. And Grissett, as both composer and pianist, operates with architectural clarity: ideas are introduced, developed, and resolved with deliberate craft.

This is a modern jazz piano trio record of substance that rewards close listening and structural attention. Travelogue offers a narrative and formal that delivers a mature record of substance.