Venezuelan jazz pianist Luis Perdomo was twenty-two years old when he moved to New York City. He has now lived there for 22 years. His trio album Twenty-Two, recorded with bassist Mimi Jones and drummer Rudy Royston, commemorates this personal and professional occasion. Perdomo may log in some session time alongside more experimental musicians such as Dave Douglas and David Gilmore, but Twenty-Two is a little more straightforward. About the most “out there” he gets is when he switches to the electric piano for a few select tunes, or lets Jones do a little bit of scatting on “Aaychdee”.
Twenty-Two mostly deals in smooth bop: fast yet fluid. Luis Perdomo gives the Bee Gees’s “How Deep Is Your Love” the ballad treatment for a lovely if unsurprising results. It’s not a key, standout moment, but Twenty-Two has a few of those scattered elsewhere. Opener “Love Tone Poem” focuses on Jones and Perdomo’s interplay so much that drums almost sound like a novelty when they enter. “Light Slips In” takes jazz on a short Gulf of Mexico cruise, and “Brand New Grays” has a snappy, catchy piano motif to bring home the goods.