Cyrus Chestnut,  Rhythm, Melody and Harmony Review

by Jeff Becker

Cyrus Chestnut’s Rhythm, Melody and Harmony is an enjoyable and informed set of nine songs with a jazz meets gospel intentional group mechanic. There’s no excess, no sonic clutter, just an ensemble functioning with architectural clarity. The quartet is piano, bass, drums, and saxophone (tenor and soprano).

The first thing that hits the senses in “Cured and Seasoned” is the swing pocket of the ensemble. Chris Beck’s drumming articulation defines time without cluttering the texture, Gerald Cannon’s bass creates the kind of walking pattern that supports the harmony and moves the music with a defined hump in his sound. Dillard builds his solo with rhythmic figures, which keeps the piece thematically consistent. Chestnut’s playing is loaded with harmonic creativity that stays legible even as voicings shift subtly through the main harmonic patterns.

“Autumn Leaves” shows Chestnut’s arranging skills with clever time signature changes. The meter is a swing feel, but it plays with time feel, creating a floating over the barline effect. Chestnut’s solo is motivic, voice-led, and harmonically layered. The ensemble maintains transparency even in denser harmonic regions, thanks in part to the well-separated mix.

“Ami’s Dance” has an engaging bass line and is a well-crafted composition. The mix of Latin and modern jazz feels in the form add to variety of the song and the flow of the album. Chestnut leans into Latin rhythm during his solo, his percussive ideas interlocking with Cannon’s bass phrasing. Dillard’s soprano stays lyrical throughout his solo, even through his harmonically slide-slipping material.

“Prelude for George” is an example of the ensemble crafting the composition by articulating the music with a shared phrasing sensibility that emphasizes inflection over density. The emotional arc is shaped by listening and building the pacing in response to the natural dynamic shifts between sections and soloists.

“Twinkle Tones” has many historically based jazz devices within its construction.  Chestnut’s solo begins with simple motivic statements, gradually introducing harmonic upper-extensions through the form’s cycle. Cannon’s solo is equally methodical, developing through sequence and register shifts. Dillard swings with bliss and polish. The medium-up tempo setting is propelled by Beck’s comping on the snare and hi-hat, with excellent dynamic modulation under solos. The melody and changes are effective in creating a form that allows deep exploration.

“Song for the Andes” is a modal tune that showcases the ensemble’s collective listening strength. Dillard’s soprano filling the space with cells of motifs and rhythmic displacements, creating a delayed tension-release pattern. Chestnut’s solo explores suspended voicings and quartal overlays. Production-wise, this track breathes—it’s mixed wide, with just the right amount of reverb tails on the cymbals and saxophone.

The bluesy tones of “Big Foot” keeps the listener engaged. The tune’s melody alternates angular, interval-based phrases with call-and-response punctuations, built with postmodern tools. Chestnut uses his keen sense of phrasing to plant harmonic pivots in his solo, often dropping altered dominant voicings as setups for the next idea. The whole tune feels conversational.

Chestnut’s harmonic language here reflects gospel roots and modern pianism in his solo performance of “Moonlight in Vermont.” His time feel is extremely relaxed and his harmonic command is impressive. This track’s intimacy is heightened by the mix, just a tad of reverb, just enough to give space to the warm piano tones, recorded closely enough to catch pedal noise and resonance decay.

“There Is a Fountain” is the closer. Chestnut keeps it structurally in this modern-jazz arrangement. This performance reflects an ensemble that is rhythmically synced and emotionally resolved without becoming static. It’s an ensemble that avoids the trap of grandiosity.

Rhythm, Melody and Harmony value lies in its precision, balance, and rhythmic form. For subtle quartet interplay, arrangement structure, strong compositions, and ensemble-based improvisation, this album belongs in your earbuds.