The Summit Rock Session at Seneca Village

“Low Bridge”

(Giant Step Arts)

During the pandemic lockdown, while jazz fans were jonesing for live music and musicians anxiously awaited the reopening of venues, Jimmy Katz had an inspiration: Why not start an outdoors concert series in Central Park? In 2020, the veteran jazz photographer and Giant Step Arts founder inaugurated the Walk With the Wind series, which presented some of New York’s top jazz practitioners on the former site of the historic Seneca Village. Among the bands who performed for the series at Summit Rock, the park’s highest natural elevation, were the Burton/McPherson Trio, one of two acts whose concert was recorded and recently released by the Giant Step Arts imprint. The Summit Rock Session at Seneca Village showcases the remarkable synergy of saxophonist Abraham Burton, bassist Dezron Douglas and drummer Eric McPherson. Douglas kicks off “Low Bridge,” included here, with a thrilling bass solo; he’s soon joined by McPherson for an intriguing duet that establishes the underlying rhythmic motif. McPherson enters tentatively at first before his bluesy, expressive blowing engages in captivating conversation with his trio mates.