An enigmatic performer whose style encompasses everything from boogie woogie to avant jazz, pianist/composer Cooper-Moore joins his trio to deliver a diverse set with Triptych Myth that still, somehow, manages to maintain an integrity and clear direction in sound.
Aside from being a pianist and composer, Cooper-Moore is an educator and creator of musical instruments. His performances are true audience experiences; along with the performance, the audience may find themselves involved in the creation of a new musical instrument from found objects; listening to the band learn a new piece; and performing, with the band, in a tubular bells ensemble. The same sense of adventure, diversity and experimentation that Cooper-Moore brings to the stage, he has managed to recreate on Triptych Myth.
“Stem Cell” opens the set in a free vein, with an aggressive approach that brings to mind the best of Cecil Taylor. “Nautilus” is a more spacious tone poem, with drummer Chad Taylor flitting lightly around the drum kit while Cooper-Moore and bassist Tom Abbs begin with an ostinato figure that slowly broadens into a more thorough investigation.
“The Fox” is a reggae-informed tune that showcases Cooper-Moore’s eschewing of the more traditional grand piano, rather going for a more barrel-house sound on upright. “Spatter Matter” is best described as avant swing, with its walking bass line supporting a bodacious improvisation from Cooper-Moore, which somehow manages to bridge the gap between ragtime and totally free playing.
“Harare” is a showcase for Taylor, who, while capable of more bombastic displays, truly constructs a musical piece on the kit. Cymbals are used to provide shading; a rhythm is delivered with brushes, introducing a minimalist-sounding thumb piano under which Taylor carefully and gradually builds the intensity. “Raising Knox” provides an opportunity for Abbs to demonstrate his own style, which combines the more aggressive chordal sound of Barre Phillips with a deep-down groove that could only come from Mingus.
The set closes with “Susan,” which begins with a modal motif revolving around fourths that could easily fit into a McCoy Tyner set list; before things get too comfortable, however, it introduces a dissonant piano ostinato over which Abbs solos with commitment; things break down into a free improv, with all members pushing and pulling before returning to the modal theme of the introduction, over which Cooper-Moore delivers an ambitious time-spanning solo.
This is, in fact, one of the strongest characteristics of the trio: its ability to bridge the gaps between various improvisational styles; reverential to a degree, but always forward-thinking in the way that the members find the threads between them. Triptych Myth challenges the preconception that jazz has been compartmentalized into a number of musical boxes. This album erases the lines between the boxes and creates, instead, a more rewarding broader expanse; a backdrop where, in the words of William S. Burroughs, “everything is permitted.”

Mark Corroto from All About Jazz

Triptych Myth
Cooper-Moore/Tom Abbs/Chad Taylor | Hopscotch

The new disc by Cooper-Moore’s trio brings to mind the lyrics from “Life Is Grand” by the rock band Camper Van Beethoven:
And life is grand
And I will say this at the risk of falling from favor
With those of you who have appointed yourselves
To expect us to say something darker
You see, pianist Cooper-Moore, bassist Tom Abbs, and drummer Chad Taylor explore the rhythmic nature of outward facing music, and they do it in a blessed manner.
Cooper-Moore is an unconventional, original pianist, heard with William Parker’s bands and in various New York free improv settings. His piano playing rains Cecil-like runs upon his own version of hard bop changes. If he wasn’t a pianist, he would surely be a drummer. The opening track, “Stem Cell,” and “Ricochet” play out this restless energy well. The explicit rumblings of the piano are exercised through some anaerobic drumming.
Yes, folks, these three can take you out. But the music made in between seems closer to the musicians' hearts. The under one minute “Stop Time #1” and the jabbing “Stop Time #2” switch back and forth with an interplay worthy of admiration. “#1” is a jaunty Monk brochure with a walking bass line and “#2” is a stolen convertible nighttime start/stop joyride three way conversation.
Chad Taylor of Chicago Underground fame certainly is a cooperative drummer, playing off and around his partners to great effect. Likewise, bassist Tom Abbs, who costarred with Taylor on last year’s Active Ingredients disc Titration (Delmark), looms very large here. Each is given a single track to apply a solo statement.
What's refreshing here is the joyful noise that is made. The trio’s stabs at bop, like “Spatter Matter,” and their reggae sound on “The Fox” keep things to their simplest. When they enter the chamber jazz/classical realm on “Spencer’s Eyes,” the pianist plays it straight, while Taylor conjures a turbulent storm. Their playing makes for a thing of beauty.

Chris Kriofske from Splendidezine.com

When I'm pressed to recommend a good jazz album, I go back to classics by artists everyone knows (or should know), but fail to come up with anything recent or more obscure. I think I've found a candidate in Triptych Myth, a challenging yet rewarding collaboration between pianist Cooper-Moore, bassist Tom Abbs and drummer Chad Taylor. Bouncing from hard bop to poignant balladry to frequency-pushing freeform exploration, this set won't exactly threaten to replace any Coltrane, Monk or Mingus in your collection, but it will clue you in to what three contemporary musicians have gleaned from such ancestral heavyweights/kindred spirits.
"Stem Cell" kicks off with a restless Monk-ish riff from Cooper-Moore that's pretty straightforward for about ten seconds -- then it veers off course in a run of twisted, increasingly tricky permutations as Abbs and Taylor miraculously keep the pace. Neophytes who tune out at this difficult, perverse choice for an opener will miss out on the calming "Nautilus", in which a two-note piano figure repeatedly drops into a melange of rumbling bass and cymbals, like waves gracefully crashing into a shore. Just as abruptly, "The Fox" indulges in a mellow reggae groove. Suitably divided into a triptych across the album, "Stop Time" is furious and messy in its first part, threatens to dissolve into chaos in its second, and is quieter and more deliberately paced in its third.
Cooper-Moore's elegant and equally eccentric tone dominates most of these compositions, although his cohorts take one solo turn each. Abbs's "Raising Knox" is bearable enough for a bass solo piece, especially when he intermittently kicks into a funky strut with percussive assistance. Taylor's "Harare", however, is gorgeous and hypnotic in the way it integrates cymbals, vibes and a basic downbeat into a shimmering, gentle whole.
As much as these left turns intrigue (and sometimes perplex), the more traditional, structured trio numbers shine brightest. Accessibility plays a large part in this, but confidence, melody and chemistry also factor in. The latter seems particularly apparent on "Spencer's Eyes", where Cooper-Moore ekes out a waltz that emanates beauty and clarity, while Abbs and Taylor imaginatively complete the pauses in the pianist's melody with polyrhythms that add complexity to the piece without obscuring its intent. That versatility and interplay carries over to the closer, "Susan", which effortlessly crams most of the album's stylistic shifts into a slamming, elaborate yet user-friendly romp that nearly holds its own with classic Coltrane. You'll be in awe of the musicianship on display, scratching your head, wondering, "How did they play that?" Not to mention nodding your head, tapping your feet and humming along.

Reviewed by: Glenn Astarita - Jazzreview.com

Review: One of several late 2003 releases by the New York City based non-profit jazz label, this piano trio affair in particular will probably find its way onto quite a few Top-10 lists. Folks, this is an up-tempo affair spearheaded by pianist Cooper-Moore’s rhythmically charged chord progressions, amid the peppery interactions of bassist Tom Abbs and drummer Chad Taylor. In addition, the sound recording process lends itself well to the trio’s forthright mode of operations.
The outfit doles out symmetrical portions of what might be considered mainstream jazz and of course, the outside realm of matters. Moore boasts a forceful and indisputably revved up approach, while incorporating quaint melody lines into his overall game plan. At times, he fuses Monk-like phraseology with a rip-roaring sequence of events, via swirling arpeggios and punctuated block chords. Nevertheless, on pieces such as “The Fox,” the band tempers the flow, thanks to an innocently conveyed dub groove, marked by jazzy overtures and an affable melody. They subsequently launch into a bevy of explosively articulated motifs consisting of spiraling rhythms and a maze of micro-vignettes. As they periodically, start and stop various musical statements, only to regenerate them into swarming waves of sound. It’s akin to an action adventure, awash with non-stop excitement! (Highly recommended listening!)

Dan Warburton -paristransatlantic.com

Triptych Myth is a trio outing for pianist Cooper-Moore, bassist Tom Abbs and drummer Chad Taylor, and well worth the price of admission for tracks like the opening "Stem Cell", which showcases Cooper-Moore's pianism - well-grounded in Tayloresque rapid-fire alternation of the hands and Pullen-like fist rolls - to great effect. Tracks like "The Fox", which descends into cod reggae, are less convincing though, and the album as a whole seems somewhat uneven, and is marred by several clumsy errors: the track timings and titles of four pieces on the disc do not correspond to the booklet (two pairs of tracks are inversed), the piano on several tracks is woefully out of tune (presumably not the ones recorded by Jim Staley at Roolette [sic], though even that is not made clear), and there are marked differences in sound between tracks (Abbs' bass solo "Raising Knox" is wonderfully meaty but elsewhere he's too far back in the mix). A bit of proof reading and some extra mastering wouldn't have gone amiss.