MIKE JONES WITH STRINGS Live Album to Arrive via Capri Records
Guitarist Graham Dechter and bassist Alex Frank join the pianist known for his Oscar Peterson-style virtuosity.
Jazz pianist Mike Jones, who Chicago music critic Neil Tesser calls 'the successor to the stupefyingly virtuosic Oscar Peterson,' has been music director for magicians Penn and Teller for the last two decades.
Jones' prodigious skills grew from his deep lifelong love of swing music. As a child mesmerized by his father's Duke Ellington records, he started playing piano at the age of four. Today, he performs for millions at Penn and Teller shows each year as well as making his own music with colleagues like guitar prodigy Graham Dechter and acclaimed bassist Alex Frank. Capri Records releases the live album, Mike Jones With Strings, on August 21, 2026.
Recorded at Vic's Supper Club in Las Vegas, the album pays tribute to Oscar Peterson and Nat King Cole with a throwback ensemble that echoes the great drummerless trios of the 1940s and 50s. Jones is something of a throwback himself with his ambidextrous 'two-handed' piano style that highlights the entire range of the instrument with stunning virtuosity. As a unit, the trio proves that beloved standards like 'Autumn Leaves,' 'Gone With the Wind,' and 'Lady Be Good' are not just enduring, but irresistible, exciting, and in-the-moment wonderful.
Jones also hosts the podcast The Stereo Image. Guests have included Robert Corn-Revere (the lawyer who pardoned Lenny Bruce), classical conductor Leonard Slatkin (Frank Sinatra tucked him in as a child), pianist Judy Carmichael, Big Bang Theory co-creator Bill Prady, artist and animator David Silverman and many more.
The ability to swing has long been at the heart of jazz. For his new live album, jazz pianist Mike Jones assembles a drummerless trio that quickly proves to be one of the most swinging bands on the scene. Mike Jones With Strings, out August 21, 2026 via Capri Records, was recorded live at Vic's Supper Club in Las Vegas and features Jones, guitar prodigy Graham Dechter, and bassist Alex Frank on a hard driving, profoundly swinging journey through the Great American Songbook.
The great Nat King Cole pioneered the drummerless trio with guitarist Oscar Moore and bassist Wesley Prince in the 1930s, and it's since become the chamber music of jazz. Oscar Peterson famously revived this format in the early 1950s with Ray Brown on bass and rotating guitarists Herb Ellis and Barney Kessel. The guitar and bass take on the task of timekeeping and establishing the groove, allowing more conversational interplay between musicians as well as an intimate aesthetic.
Jones, whose priority has always been to create exceptionally swinging recordings, had the idea of this album with Dechter and Frank on his mind for a while. Because both artists are busy and active on the LA jazz scene and tour regularly with Jeff Goldblum, getting the ensemble together was not an easy task. Thanks to help from Vic's Supper Club, the trio was able to record before an enthusiastic audience.
The group's prodigious chops are evident right from the opening track, a supremely swinging version of George Gershwin's 'Lady Be Good' followed by the more mellow but no less compelling 'Gone With the Wind.' The perennial favorite 'Autumn Leaves' begins with Dechter's deeply felt delivery of the familiar, yearning melody that becomes an ever more complex and satisfying improvisation. Jones follows up with his own multi-faceted interpretation, taking the melody to new heights with Frank's rock-solid bass as a strong foundation.
On Oscar Peterson's 'Kelly's Blues,' the trio's swinging might is on full display, driving the music home with impeccable rhythm and brilliantly bluesy solos. The bouncy 'Destination Moon' and snappy 'Deed I Do' have never sounded so good. The trio goes into ballad mode with a gorgeous rendition of the sultry, smoky 'The Very Thought of You' and closes the set with a burning hot performance of 'Exactly Like You.'
Mike Jones With Strings marks the convening of three musicians in a trio with remarkable fluidity, precision, spirit, and swing, delivering performances of beloved jazz standards from start to finish.
