Paul Cornish Trio

We didn’t know anything about Paul Cornish when we picked up tickets to see his Trio at SFJazz one Thursday evening. He was playing in the Joe Henderson Lab, which often features rising stars and has a view of the streets of San Francisco through plate glass windows. We were up fror a night of jazz and gave it a shot.

And we were amply rewarded with a great set. Cornish has very interesting compositions that frequently shift gears and slip into unexpected places. The tunes often had simple elements at their core – a great rhythm or an attractive melody. These were the onramp for the journey that followed. The bassist Jermaine Paul played virtuoso solos. And drummer Jonathan Pinson could play with very quiet intensity, like Brian Blade, but also let it rip.

It also happened to be opening night of a new SFJazz season and they were giving out free cookies and champagne. We had a filling dinner beforehand of dumplings at the popular place around the corner.

Shows in the lab are just an hour, and this hour was packed with intriguing compositions, melodies, rhythms and sounds. Each song was a story well-told.

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