Caelan Cardello

Chapter One
Release Date: August 29, 2025
Label: Jazz Bird Records

Those who have frequented New York City’s staple jazz venues in recent years will have noticed a bright new name increasingly appearing consistently. From Dizzy’s and Smalls to Jazz at Lincoln Center, the 2021 BMI Future Jazz Master Caelan Cardello is a pianist whose renown is dramatically and rightly spreading like wildfire through the stages of NYC. A mentee of jazz greats such as Harold Mabern, Bill Charlap, Fred Hersch, and Dave Kikoski, Cardello’s playing leans into the timeless elements of swing while raising melody, with depths of nuance and intentionality, to the fore. Now, taking to the studio for the first time, Cardello presents eight original compositions and three arrangements with Chapter One, a debut recording that showcases his style and his band’s presence in a remarkable way. 

Chapter One as a title holds meaning both on the surface and in the subtext. With this being Cardello's debut, the title rightly signals the start of what is set to be a lauded recording career. On a deeper level, this album marks a landmark point in Cardello's life. While Cardello approaches his first quarter century, this period marks the first time that he'll truly be stepping forward on his own, no longer in formal schooling and now setting forth to make his mark entirely unbound. In this way, the album marks Cardello stepping into the first full chapter of his life with the prologue being completed.

The birth of Chapter One in many ways feels cinematic as from a bygone era of jazz. After one particular evening of performance in New York, Cardello was approached by Geoffrey Hoefer, head of Jazz Bird Records. Cardello’s playing and his trio’s work had moved Hoefer to such an extent that he knew Cardello needed to be recorded, and Hoefer made the pianist a record deal. From there Cardello began compiling the pieces, original and arranged, that best showcased him and his trio and paid homage to those who had led him to this point.

Cardello’s writing and playing styles are heavily informed by great pianists of the past. With a noteworthy emphasis on melody drawn from legends such as Oscar Peterson and Cedar Walton, Cardello keeps each piece memorable and able to stick with his audiences. Melody, however, is not the only informed element of Cardello’s writing. Cardello’s harmonic structuring is mature and historically rich, drawing on iconic bebop formations from Thelonious Monk and modern stylings from Brad Mehldau. Cardello describes his own sound as “...swing; well, trying to preserve swing, with newer melodies - modern melodies - and thinking of different ways to present swing with my own touch.”

One of the album’s most prominent performances is Cardello’s arrangement of “Groundwork” by Cedar Walton. Having been a staple piece in Cardello’s repertoire at live shows for many years, Cardello saw the tune as a paramount exemplifier of his trio’s sound, and encapsulates that which Cardello loves about Walton’s writing, by using “sometimes very simple melodies and interesting harmonies and rhythms to bring that melody to life.” 

“Where Do We Go Now” is Cardello’s musical response to a question that he posits is asked by every person regularly whether consciously or subliminally. The melody to this piece was written at the end of a particularly emotional day. As Cardello revisited the melody, he found that the rest of the piece seemingly wrote itself. Cardello notes of the piece’s meaning, “I believe it is good to acknowledge where we currently are and have been, but equally as important to think about the future.” 

Another highlight of the album is “Music for the People,” an original blues that aims to be an ode to the blues and its seemingly infinite influence on every form of contemporary music. Cardello remarks, "People typically view the blues as sad or mournful, but the blues can be rejoicing, rejuvenating, and healing.” For Cardello, this piece embodies the latter for him as he plays it, and this sensation is immediately able to be picked up by audiences.

“Steppin’ Up”, another of Cardello’s originals, is a raucous gauntlet of a piece that tests the mettle of Cardello and his trio. In addition to its breakneck tempo, “Steppin’ Up” contains a plethora of nuanced hits within the melody and arrangement that require dexterity and attention from all members of the band. “Gone Fishin’,” one of the first pieces on the album, stands important within Cardello’s oeuvre as it is a tribute both to his father and to Harold Mabern’s manner of composition. Mabern taught Cardello to draw influence from people he loves or moments that are held dear. Cardello’s father and his love for fishing fit both of these ideas and so acted as a perfect muse for this loving work. 

While the pianist is the obvious focal point of the piano trio, there is no trio without the steadfast band members. Cardello’s trio comprises Jonathon Muir-Cotton on bass and Domo Branch on drums, as well as guest Chris Lewis on tenor saxophone for three tracks. Cardello applauds his band members for their stalwart and quintessential contributions to this work. “The first time I heard Jonathon was at a jam session at this venue in New York,” Cardello says. “I had never heard of him or met him before but I knew from those first few notes how big his sound was and how deep his groove was.” Of Branch, Cardello praises similarly: “Domo plays with so much soul, and I’m grateful to him for his thunderous yet very nuanced drumming style, where he listens very intently and reacts in time beautifully.”

With Chapter One, Cardello sets himself up to continue writing further chapters and, indeed, full tomes with the brilliance and vibrancy that he and his band have spun. Steeped in tradition yet bold enough to pursue it in a new direction, Cardello has set himself up to be a name that is remembered prominently for decades to come.