Supported by KNKX. On Continuance, his seventh album as a leader, the Bali, Indonesia-born pianist, composer, and bandleader Joey Alexander has far surpassed his earlier incarnations: he’s now comfortable in his new identity as a composer-pianist of fertile imagination and emotional depth.

Since a tender age, Joey has been widely regarded as one of the most highly skilled pianists and thoughtful improvisers in jazz. Continuance, however, presents him primarily as a composer of haunting chamber jazz who leads an ensemble with its own point of view. Continuance shows his writing and playing have continued to deepen.

Continuance finds him once again concentrating on his own tunes. It is also the first album he has recorded with his regular touring trio of Kris Funn on upright bass and John Davis on drums, a group with whom he has played hundreds of gigs over the past four years. They are augmented on four tracks by Grammy-nominated trumpet player Theo Croker.

Theo Croker is a storyteller who speaks through his trumpet. The 39-year-old trumpeter-composer has been a Grammy nominee in the jazz fields; he played all the great jazz venues around the world; he was mentored by Donald Byrd at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where he graduated with a degree in jazz music; and Dee Dee Bridgewater produced his third album, Afro Physicist, which features fellow trumpeter Roy Hargrove.