Stacken, Van Huffel, Wooley, Rainey at Caffe Vivaldi

A quartet led by pianist Jesse Stacken, including saxophonist Peter Van Huffel, trumpeter Nate Wooley, and drummer Tom Rainey, lit up Caffe Vivaldi on Jones Street in the West Village last night. Wooley’s inventive angles of playing, at times percussive, at others, driving, seemed to fuel the ensemble as he exchanged emotional riffs and interplay with Van Huffel and Stacken. Rainey and Wooley also seemed to have a special connection, the drummer folding his toned beats into the trumpeter’s lines such that one would have thought they had been playing together for years. The packed crowd responded with extended applause after each piece, making it clear to the proprietors that they want more performances in this vein there in the future.

Cisco BradleyStacken, Van Huffel, Wooley, Rainey at Caffe Vivaldi