After nearly a decade away from recording as a trio, pianist Danny Grissett returns with Travelogue, a richly layered new release that feels less like a comeback and more like a homecoming. Joined by bassist Vicente Archer and drummer Bill Stewart - two players who know how to listen as deeply as they play - Grissett charts the course through eight originals that echo with the pulse of movement, memory, and musical kinship.

A quiet force in contemporary jazz, Grissett has built a reputation on crystalline touch, lyrical phrasing, and harmonic fluency; qualities that align him with influences like Herbie Hancock, Mulgrew Miller, and Cedar Walton, but with a voice entirely his own. Whether accompanying legends like Tom Harrell or carving out space as a leader, his music always radiates clarity, warmth, and depth.

On Travelogue, that clarity takes on new shape with what sounds like postcards from the road, sketches of lives lived in motion. From the opener’s breezy lift to moments of introspective stillness, the album feels personal yet universal. “Travelogue represents a collection of musical stories, told in collaboration with two phenomenal musicians,” says Grissett. “I’m eager to share new music after such a long time.”

Grissett knows what it means to live between cities, in his case, Los Angeles, New York, and Vienna. And that sense of place, or the search for it, flows through the album. But the true constant is the trio’s cohesion: Stewart’s elastic drumming, Archer’s melodic grounding, and Grissett’s conversational piano lines form a soundscape where everything breathes.

Danny Grissett's Travelogue is modern jazz played with poise and purpose - elegant without being mannered, exploratory without losing its swing.