Lisa Hilton/piano, Larry Grenadier/bass, Nasheet Waits/drums

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Getaway is Hilton’s 15th release as a leader showcasing her compositions and agile piano in a Power Trio with longtime band mate and bass icon, Larry Grenadier and the creative genius of Nasheet Waits, all three well represented on these thirteen tracks.

Retro grooving in Getaway and, Just For Fun or City Streets, soulful ballads with echos a young Bill Evans on Evening Song, and Huckleberry Moon, the swinging blues of Slow Down or Earl Hines Stormy Monday Blues,or the free outbursts on Lost & Found and Emergency this trio delivers power, passion and nuance in a refreshingly clear manner.

Audiophiles will take note on the superior quality of the recording. Heavy weight recording engineer James Farber, along with multi Grammy winning engineers Al Schmitt on mix, and Gavin Lurssen on mastering have worked consistently with Hilton over the years, to deliver the outstanding high fidelity of Getaway.

Getaway is about finding freedom in our busy, technology filled lives – whether that is to physically get up and move, or to refresh our lives through art, music, nature or with friends. (This is the idea also conveyed in the Getaway video by the young director James J. Grant).

On a conceptual level, jazz musicians must continually embrace our musical past – the great music of America’s jazz and blues, while moving forward: hence the vintage luggage and movement on the cover. We can reference our history as jazz musicians, yet still get away from some of the restrictions that were inherent in twentieth century music.

In past generations, our parents record collections, the assignments of music teachers, or the local radio dj curated musical tastes. Since the beginnings of internet radio in 1994, the debut of iTunes in June 2001, and YouTube 2005, the entire world is at now at our musical fingertips. Not only has it changed how musicians work and learn, it has created a cultural melting pot with a vast musical vocabulary available to everyone with a computer.

Music is not purely for the academically trained, or for those able to pay for symphony tickets – it is available to everyone anywhere. We are now firmly embedded in the 21st century and music should reflect this enlarged cultural view of our world today. In this collection, you will hear influences from jazz heroes Thelonious Monk and Count Basie, or bluesmen like Muddy Waters, but also the rock anthems of Billy Joe Armstrong and Green Day, cool rhythms of Dirty Projectors, the big bass sounds of Deep Purple, Modern masters like Prokofiev, nursery rhymes and even Chopin, Steve Reich, Stephen Foster, Henry Mancini, or Scott Joplin.

When you listen to Jelly Roll Morton or Beethoven, you instinctively understand what era they were composing in, but a 21st century composer and musician reflects the past and the present in a broad scope of our world today. Hilton explains – As a composer and an artist, I need the music we create to work on several levels: it must relate to our physical world, echo a shared emotion or experience, explore musical concepts, and be fun to play over and over. It is not enough to just create a tune for me; it must reach people on more than one level. For me, music and art are the original social networks, and have the ability to connect with our world effortlessly.

Hilton’s evocative piano, Grenadier’s iconic bass solos, and Wait’s endless creativity make for a memorable listening experience.