Bill Stewart ft. Walter Smith III and Larry Grenadier

The Bill Stewart Trio with Larry Grenadier and Walter Smith III is one of the most exciting formations on the jazz and improvisation scene today. In recent years, the trio has twice spent a week at New York's legendary Village Vanguard, where they recorded the album Band Menu. Stewart and Grenadier have a long history together as sidemen with Pat Metheny and John Scofield, among others. Stewart first met Walter Smith III at a Danny Grissett recording session and was immediately impressed by his individual sound.

The drummer and composer Bill Stewart has been one of the most sought-after musicians on the scene for over 30 years. The New York Times wrote: "His true specialty is making a good band sound even better in an inexplicable way." He has worked with John Scofield, Pat Metheny, Maceo Parker and others and has led a trio with Larry Goldings and Peter Bernstein for decades. His Blue Note albums Snide Remarks (1995, NYT Top Ten of the Year) and Telepathy (1997) as well as other trio and quartet releases have shaped his reputation. Band Menu deliberately marks a move away from sonorous keyboard formations towards an open, melodic trio without chordal instruments.

Praised by the New York Times as "deeply intuitive" and by Bass Player Magazine for his "fluid sense of melody", Larry Grenadier has worked with Joe Henderson, Stan Getz, Brad Mehldau, Paul Motian and Pat Metheny, among others. He is co-founder of the collaborative trio Fly and the quartet Hudson and released the acclaimed solo album The Gleaners (ECM) in 2019.

Walter Smith III is an award-winning saxophonist, composer and educator. His fifth album as a leader, Twio (2018), was released with his long-standing trio and guests such as Christian McBride and Joshua Redman. He has played and toured with Roy Haynes, Terence Blanchard, Eric Harland, Jason Moran, Ambrose Akinmusire, Christian McBride, Christian Scott and Sean Jones, among others. The Houston native lives in Boston and is chair of the woodwind department at Berklee College of Music. Jimmy Heath said of him: "Walter Smith is a perfect example of standing with one foot in the past and the other in the future."