And melodic, impressionistic swinging was characteristic of pianist Rick Germanson's performance last weekend at St. Paul's Artists' Quarter. The Milwaukee native/transplanted New Yorker studied classical piano and attended the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music where he studied with David Hazeltine, assimilating the bop canon of Wynton Kelly, Sonny Clark and Cedar Walton, and the post bop influences of Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, and McCoy Tyner. "What's interesting," he says, "is that I was always attracted to the more modernist school of playing... I heard Wynton Marsalis' Black Codes and was turned on by Kenny Kirkland's solos. I wanted to play like that... "

Germanson is well on his way. After gigging in Milwaukee with Frank Morgan (who was living there at the time) and spending a year on tour of European jazz festivals in Morgan's band, he returned to play the Milwaukee clubs and was introduced to Latin grooves by percussionist Luis Diaz. About this time Germanson hooked up with trumpeter Brian Lynch and expanded his horizons throughout the Midwest. After winning the 1996 Grand Prize in the American Pianist Association Jazz Piano Competition, Germanson relocated to New York with a scholarship to the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with Jaki Byard. Since then he has moved in the fast company of such jazz virtuosos as Elvin Jones, Jimmy Cobb, Mickey Roker, Wynton Marsalis, Eddie Henderson, Tom Harrell, Eric Alexander, Craig Handy, Joe Locke, and Slide Hampton; with the Mingus Big Band and Louis Hayes' Cannonball Adderley Legacy Band; and with vocalists Marlena Shaw, Carla Cook, and Kevin Mahogany.

For about a year, Germanson had a weekly gig at the Four Seasons Hotel in NYC, which gave him "a chance to really delve into some repertoire. They like to hear standards and you can do so much with them." Germanson acknowledges coming under the influence of Art Tatum's music during this period, particularly "his harmonic sense, his movements, his reharmonizations, the drama he creates."

On his debut release (Heights) on Fresh Sounds/New Talent (2003), Rick Germanson's own harmonic sense, movements, reharmonizations, and drama are at the forefront, and these hallmarks and more were in delightful evidence during his two-night stand at the Artists' Quarter. In trio format with local talents Terry Burns (bass) and AQ owner Kenny Horst (drums), downtown St. Paul was the scene of some of the most creative treatment of standards I've encountered recently, and his own compositions displayed what Jazz Times described as his "tons of technique, taste and a clarity of right-hand runs, an appreciation for complex rhythms, and a love for Latin."

The first set on Saturday night featured young bassist James Buckley filling in for Terry Burns. An able player, Buckley needed a few tunes to get in gear with Germanson's multi-layered improvisations and shifting rhythms, but he provided a strong pulse throughout the set. The groove smoked even hotter and with stronger collaboration when Burns rejoined the trio for the later sets.

Germanson blends the strong two-handed attack of Tatum, Peterson and Tyner with the lyricism of Evans and a complex, dense approach to improvisation that is all his own. His octave-spanning chords, often in tandem right and left, cover the keyboard at least as often as his single note runs; his rhythms and dynamics can shift in sudden and sweeping cascades like a windstorm swirling on a sandy dune. His "Monk Medley," for example, started out with a solo "Ask Me Now," merging into a swinging "Round Midnight" that ultimately moved into a Samba-like vamp, accented by Kenny Horst's feathery brushwork. The first set closer, a richly concocted "Cherokee," left no space unfilled and featured Buckley's strongest support as well as Kenny Horst's hottest solo of the evening.