Liner Notes: By Andrew Gilbert

Casual observers of the Bay Area music scene might be surprised to find Dave Mathews on a Trane track. But if there's one thread that connects his far-flung career as a pianist, keyboardist and organist, it's that he insists on following his muse wherever it takes him. This journey, his follow up to 1998's "Down With It!," a tremendously satisfying blues-drenched live album recorded at joints around Northern California, is a quantum leap for Mathews, a thrilling ride to a musical universe held together by the inexorable gravitation pull of saxophonist John Coltrane. Mathews is often associated with blues, funk and R&B, from his early days as Chester Thompson's replacement in Tower of Power to his ongoing gig with Etta James, but he is a highly effective straight ahead jazz player. On the Hammond B3 organ, he has created a sound that's lithe and linear, harmonically sophisticated and fiercely swinging. "The first album was more bluesy," says Mathews, 45. "This is more of post-bop session, more out of the Larry Young/Don Patterson bag. I've been listening to McCoy Tyner and a lot of the 1960s post-bop players and I'm trying to translate some of that stuff to the organ, and I wanted to get guys who can play out of that idiom."

The companions who join him on this Trane trip are particularly well suited for the excursion. Oakland-based saxophonist Larry Schneider is best known for his 1970s stints with the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra and the Horace Silver Quintet. In recent years he's recorded a series of excellent albums of his own, and his playing here is so consistently rewarding that it's impossible not to lament his relatively low Bay Area profile. Warm and sensuous on the ballads, agile and muscular on the uptempo numbers, Schneider makes it obvious why he became one of the few saxophonists to record with Bill Evans late in the pianist's career. San Francisco native Barry Finnerty, a resourceful guitarist in the midst of a career resurgence, made a powerful impression in New York in the 1970s, recording with fusion pioneers such as Miles Davis, the Brecker Brothers and the Crusaders. Taking a page out of Grant Green's pithy book, his sound here his sound is lean and clean (at least until he takes off on "Dr. Jackle"). Much like Mathews, drummer Deszon X. Claiborne is a stylistically polyglot player whose credits seem impossibly diverse, from Ornette Coleman and Bo Diddley to Andy Narell and Charles Brown. For those used to hearing him in funk oriented settings, his work here will be a revelation, powerful but contained, with a sound marked by his lively but sensitive touch on the cymbals.

While Coltrane isn't directly responsible for any one tune on the album, every piece is associated with the him in some way. The album opens with a blazing version of Sonny Rollins' "Airegin," which Coltrane first recorded on the Miles Davis Quintet's classic 1956 Prestige album "Cookin'." The mood quickly switches with the luscious Rodgers and Hart standard "It's Easy To Remember," a tune rendered by Trane with little elaboration on the Impulse album "Ballads." Mathews derived the fleet "Night Trane" from an alternate head of Coltrane's "Moment's Notice." Pianist Mal Waldron wrote his gorgeous ballad "Soul Eyes" with Coltrane in mind, and played on the original 1957 version, though it was the sublime 1962 rendition by Coltrane's classic quartet that informs Mathews' exploration. Finnerty contributed "Count Up," a tune based on Trane's harmonic obstacle course "Count Down." Tyner's modal workout "Four By Five" is the album's most tangential tune, though anything by McCoy is less than one degree of spiritual separation from Coltrane. The album's lyrical epiphany is Irving Berlin's "They Say It's Wonderful," a tune borrowed from Coltrane's invaluable collaboration with suave baritone Johnny Hartman. Coltrane roared through Jackie McLean's "Dr. Jackle" on Davis's landmark "Milestones" album, a tune that features some terrifically exciting unison work by Mathews and Schneider. Tadd Dameron wrote the lovely ballad "Soultrane" as a featured number for the tenor saxophonist on the album "Mating Call," and Mathews' was inspired to craft the closer, "Thelonious Nutty Dance" from Coltrane's "Giant Steps," a tune that's almost as daunting as when it came out in 1959. "I tried to imagine that tune if Monk had played it with the jagged rhythms he used," Mathews says. "I think his whole idea of rhythmic displacement is pure bebop. Those are rhythms that bebop drummers used. That's why he swings so hard."

For Mathews, this Coltrane-oriented project isn't so much a departure from his normal flight path as the latest stop on his ongoing musical adventure. Born in Berkeley on April 16, 1959, Mathews grew up in Walnut Creek. He left home at 16, and soon after was supporting himself playing in R&B and top-40 bands around the East Bay. In many ways, his musical education captures the East Bay's uniquely diverse cultural melange. He spent his formative years soaking up blues with Tim Kaihatsu and honing his Latin chops with Ray Obiedo, Pete Escovedo and daughter Sheila E. He gained recognition as a potent R&B player with Tower of Power, a group he anchored for two and half years in the mid-1980s. He's delved deeply into Crescent City grooves with Maria Muldaur, and more recently has been displaying his fine feel for straight ahead swing with Kim Nalley. Mostly self-taught, Mathews gleaned jazz piano insights from Mark Levine, Dick Hindman, John Marabuto, and Dick Whittington. His gift for assimilating and personalizing various styles makes this one of the year's most satisfying B3 sessions, a thoroughly enjoyable jaunt that begs for further forays.