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Yes, We Have No Piano: Tabackin Leads Trio at Vine St. Bar & Grill

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Saxophonist-flutist Lew Tabackin doesn’t have anything against pianos or pianists--after all, he’s married to Toshiko Akiyoshi, the pianist and bandleader with whom he often performs, both with her Jazz Orchestra and in their quartet.

It’s just that he likes what happens when he plays without a keyboard, as he will Wednesday-Saturday at the Vine St. Bar & Grill in Hollywood, when he leads a trio featuring bassist Jay Anderson and drummer Bill Goodwin.

“A piano-less group is a whole different entity,” says Tabackin, 50, an inventive modern mainstream jazzman whose most recent album is “Desert Lady” (Concord Jazz).

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The openness of a trio contrasts with the normal piano-included combo, said the Manhattan resident, who lived in Los Angeles from 1972-82. “In a quartet, it’s usually the horn player playing on top of the rhythm section. You play off each other, but there’s a separation. In a trio, there’s less separation, it’s more the three of you, more interplay.”

In the latter context, Tabackin says the challenges and rewards are greater, for both listener and musician. “The trio requires intense concentration amongst the musicians, so we really have to tune into each other,” he said. “And the listener has to work harder, has to become the fourth man. It leaves more to listeners’ imagination and to the players’ ingenuity.”

To be sure, there are problems trying to get work with a piano-less band, said Tabackin, who has been playing in trios since 1966 and whose debut solo release was a trio session.

“I’m trying to develop a project with (trumpeter) Randy Brecker and you can’t believe the resistance I’m getting, like, ‘It’s too far out,’ ” he says. “Club owners are so conservative. They forget that there’s a tradition for this instrumentation: Sonny Rollins did it so well and Gerry Mulligan’s quartet, one of most popular groups of the ‘50s, had no piano.”

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