With His Jazz Trio Tarbaby, Orrin Evans Wants to be Uncomfortable

When pianist Orrin Evans first met his future musical partners, bassist Eric Revis and drummer Nasheet Waits, around the turn of the millennium, the creative connection was immediate. A personal relationship with the two, on the other hand, took some time.

“The main reason, I’ll be honest, is that neither of them were nice,” Evans, now 49, says with a laugh. “Coming from Trenton, New Jersey, and that other Philly thing in me, I understood. It’s not about being nice. Gotta earn my love.”

After playing a gig together at Philly venue Ortlieb’s Lounge and then decamping to a studio in 2000 to record Blessed Ones (released as Orrin Evans Trio), the three men became fast friends and constant collaborators. Through the twists and turns of their respective career paths, including Evans’ brief stint replacing Ethan Iverson in The Bad Plus and Waits frequently performing with celebrated pianist Jason Moran, they fell back into each other’s orbits, fostering the provocatively named project Tarbaby.

“We all spoke the same language,” Evans insists. “By that I mean the love we have for the music and the love we have for the elders and the mentors. Holding very dear and close to those things is something we hold important.”

This spirit is evident in the group’s recorded output. Their albums feature well-chosen compositions by fellow groundbreaking artists like Don Cherry and Prince as well as contributions from living legends and up-and-comers. A fixture of their discography is the daring saxophonist Oliver Lake, while Ambrose Akinmusire, a leader in the current spiritual jazz movement, put his stamp all over the group’s 2012 release Ballad of Sam Langford.

In that regard, Tarbaby’s most recent album, You Think This America, released in June, is something of an outlier in their discography. For the first time under this name, the trio recorded with no guests as they approached a deconstructed take on Ornette Coleman’s “Comme il Faut,” a faithful cover of The Stylistics’ “Betcha By Golly, Wow,” and a handful of inventive post-bop originals.

As much as Evans’ angular yet delicate playing takes a lead role on America, the pianist gives the credit for the album’s direction and sound to his cohorts. “The record was heavily curated by both of them,” he says. “And I love it because, honestly, [some of] these songs I was familiar with but I might not have played, I mean, with another ensemble, because this ensemble speaks this language well. It was really great to find these tunes and to live with them.”

The album also boasts a pair of Evans’ compositions, both of which he has recorded before for previous projects. It’s a common-enough practice for a jazz artist, but in the pianist’s mind, the decision was entirely deliberate.

“I’m about creating new standards,” he says. “Some people may say, ‘Oh man, we just recorded that song. Don’t do it again.’ I’m the complete opposite. Let’s show the world in whatever way that we’re not stuck with one way of recording songs. As long as they’re playing the melody and respecting your tune, I like to see different versions.”

Evans’ attitude extends to every Tarbaby release. Other than the people playing the music, the spirit and mood of the albums continue to shift and evolve. That’s most certainly the case with a second Tarbaby record that will be out before the end of the year. The press notes on Evans’ website reveal that it will feature contributions from spoken-word artist Ursula Rucker (a name likely familiar to hip-hop heads for her work with The Roots) and saxophonists JD Allen and Bill McHenry. If we’re lucky, the band will present some of this new material when they stop by The 1905 on Oct 2 as part of their current promotional tour.

But all Evans will say about this as-yet-unnamed full-length album is that he and his bandmates are still fiddling with it. “That may be the one caveat with having a three-headed monster,” Evans says. “You sometimes think, ‘Oh, this is great,’ and then the other person’s like, ‘Oh, we should do this,’ and then the other person’s like, ‘Well, then why don’t we do this?’ That’s the beauty. I want to be uncomfortable. I want to be challenged and constantly learning.”

SEE IT: Tarbaby at The 1905, 830 N Shaver St., the1905jazz.club. 6 and 8:15 pm Wednesday, Oct. 2. $30. All ages.