Frank Amsallem: The Summer Knows

CONTINUO JAZZ (RELEASED MAY 23, 2025)

The Summer Knows is an album as soothing, warm and refreshing as the season it celebrates. For this, his 11^th recording, pianist Frank Amsallem enlisted the musical support of bassist David Wong and drummer Kush Abedey. Like his first recording in 1991 with Gary Peacock and Bill Stewart, Amsallem continues to mine the groundbreaking feel of the classic Bill Evans Trio. The title track, which Evans recorded in 1975, is a case in point. Amsallem’s impressionist opening piano solo paves the way for the intuitive harmonic and rhythmic interaction of the trio members. “La Chason d’ Helene,” another French movie theme, begins with Wong playing the melody over Amsallem’s perfectly played countermelody. The roles change before the trio explores the musical contours of this slow and atmospheric ballad. Other familiar tunes on The Summer Knows include “Unforgettable” and “Blue Gardenia,” both recorded by Nat King Cole, as well as a bossa nova version of “You Won’t Forget Me” and “Morning Star” (a song I remember from Hubert Law’s 1972 release on CTI Records). Less familiar is a Kurt Weill tune rarely done as an instrumental — “It Never Was You” — which the trio approaches in a serene and rhapsodic style. Amsallem also contributed three originals for the session — the boppish “Cotton Trails,” the modal “Agrigento” and the bluesy ”Discourse.” Whatever Amsallem, Wong and Abadey tackle on The Summer Knows they do so collectively, compassionately and with great competence. No doubt about it, Amsallem picked the perfect bandmates and compositions for The Summer Knows, making it a recording you’ll enjoy any season of the year. After all, Henry David Thoreau once said, “One must maintain a little bit of summer, even in the middle of winter.”

BOTTOM LINE: In 1961, Bill Evans changed the trajectory of the piano trio with his performances at the Village Vanguard. Coincidentally, that was also the year pianist Frank Amsallem was born in French Algeria. Sixty-four years later, Amsallem, along with bassist David Wong and drummer Kush Abedy, captures the unique musical interplay of the Bill Evans Trio with The Summer Knows.