Joey Alexander opening and great concert at our US/EU Jazz Blues Festival 2024 was amazing: Video, Photos

Since playing his debut show at Music Haven in his teens, the Bali-born jazz pianist celebrated among other area shows, and returned to US/EU Jazz Blues festival as a multiple Grammy nominee, a star.

Alexander’s rocket-trajectory echoes “Little” Stevie Wonder, a wonder right out of the box, with a second act as dazzling as his first. The “Little” also fits; coming onstage on Saturday at Prague, Czech Republic Alexander seemed slight as the umbrella I surprisingly didn’t have to use coming or going from the downtown theater.

Like Wonder’s, Alexander’s talent has deepened since his first fame. His songs tell stories whose compelling musical logic rings so clear that everyone can follow along, no small feat in modern jazz, where abstraction often rules.

Backed by bassist Kris Funn and drummer Jonathan Barber, the ever-smiling Bali native, who has been touring internationally for five years and has already released two CDs, tore into a program that included his originals “Faithful,” “Fourteen,” “Space” “Bali,” and “Peace,” the hymn “I Have Died, O Lord,” and the jazz classics “Moment’s Notice,” “Round Midnight,” and “Oleo.” His playing was fired with an enthusiasm and joyful exuberance that clearly spread to his new rhythm section and to the audience, which called the trio back for an encore, “Sunday Waltz.”

As in songs to come, Alexander launched the opening Downtime alone in a gospel-y blues mode that grew funk wings when bassist Kris Funn and drummer Jonathan Barber joined to build it big and boisterous. The standard “Stella By Starlight” got a way-above-standard reading, again taking off from Alexander’s solitary piano. Many players speed up “Stella;” Alexander slowed it down, emphasizing a relaxed, swinging bass-and-drums handshake.

When Alexander paused to announce those two tunes, I spotted guitarist Bert Pagano across the aisle from me, playing in the Albany fusion band Downtime.

We’ve seen Alexander upgrade his bands over time, and this trio has jelled in a short time into an intuitive, supportive unit. Scott made seriously gorgeous tones from his drums, while Claffy played with sensitivity and strength at every tempo.

As advanced for his age in his taste as Alexander has always been for speed and harmonic sophistication, he never overplayed and let the songs sing their own stories. They came into the audience’s emotional space and took us somewhere else.

Along the way, the precocious but assured leader got to demonstrate his keyboard virtuosity with high-powered runs and expressive lento passages and his compositional depth with some sensitive original ballads, leaving plenty of room for his bandmates to stretch out. Alexander Claffy took solos pizzicato and arco, while Kendrick Scott switched from sticks and brushes to mallets and batons, sometimes using four sticks at once for rimshots. And all of this with an ease and cohesiveness astonishing for the combo’s first time out.

For example, his original “Bali” was all soft-spoken grace, a quiet reverie of home that the band decorated with a gentle dialog of piano and bass.

Joe Henderson’s jittery “Inner Urge” was the opposite, a pulsating groove that grew kinetic bursts as Alexander stood for more power, pounding repeating phrases.

Nobody plays with more sheer physical abandon than Hiromi, but Alexander really pumped this one.

Then the peaceful “Promise of Spring” let us catch our breath, Scott playing softly with hands and brushes until the end when he and Alexander sharpened the edges of things. “Warna” hit somewhere in between, Alexander leaving gaps with a stop-and-go cadence at the electric piano as Scott filled in the blanks until a hard stop.

“Remembering” took things up again, a restless groove tune that briefly quoted a Miles Davis “In a Silent Way” number. I couldn’t tell who started it, but everybody instantly boarded it, and off they flew. Riffs echoed and answered each other as Alexander again stood to flex and flow.

After the briefest of breaks, before the standing ovation faded, Alexander encored with Thelonious Monk’s sweet “‘Round Midnight.” Maybe the master’s best-known number surely belonged to Alexander on Sunday.

Troy-born drummer/composer Joe Barna opened with his muscular quartet in original tunes honoring heroes, family, friends, and band-mates. They listened closely to each other and responded; the music felt conversational, intimate.

“The Heights” saluted Washington Heights, where Barna met his co-parent. “A Joyful Gathering” hailed both friend and all-purpose jazz booster Leslie Hyland and Music Haven spark plug Mona Golub, McDonald at his most lyrical here. Shah propelled “Gathering” with a gleaming solo and otherwise was the rock he always is.

“Thom hom” gave Avella extra space to shine, and he did, with a pretty tone and phrasing as fluid as McDonald’s. “Suite Lee” exalted the memory of the late, great Lee Shaw,” gleaming with love for the departed pianist. Here McDonald slid in and out of a poignant blues feel like Shaw did. “The Mandate,” a driving hard-bop number, earned a standing ovation as Barna clearly enjoyed exerting plenty of muscle. Busy and aggressive, Barna nonetheless gave everybody some space.

Joey Alexander is a tough act to follow, even for Joey Alexander. Look for Alexander, who now lives in NYC, to return upstate at the star-studded.