JazzTimes is honored to present the premiere of the video for “C’est Clair” by the Yes! Trio, featuring pianist Aaron Goldberg, bassist Omer Avital, and drummer Ali Jackson. Written by Avital, the track will appear on the group’s second album, Groove du Jour, which will be released by jazz&people on October 11.
One of four Avital compositions on the album (along with three by Jackson, one by Goldberg, and two covers—the Fain/Kahal standard “I’ll Be Seeing You” and Jackie McLean’s “Dr. Jackie”), “C’est Clair” is a relaxed, bluesy jazz waltz that takes on more urgency toward its end when Jackson grabs a tambourine, shaking up the beat and spurring Goldberg on to more elaborate solo flights.
Friends for nearly a quarter-century, Jackson, Goldberg, and Avital first came together at the New York club Smalls in 1995. Yet it took almost 15 years before they entered the recording studio as a group in December 2009; the results of that session were eventually released in 2012 under the title Yes! by Sunnyside Records. (Of course, all three players have had distinguished careers separately, working with an impressive lineup of artists that includes Wynton Marsalis, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Joshua Redman, Guillermo Klein, Roy Haynes, and Jimmy Cobb.) Now, another decade on, they’ve reunited for a sequel.
