‘Catalyst Session’ recap: La Lucha

The jazz trio La Lucha kicked off Thursday’s edition of The Catalyst Sessions with a swinging live performance of “One Plus Two,” a song from the latest La Lucha album Everybody Wants to Rule the World.

It wasn’t really live, of course. The video clip was recorded live, with no audience, not long ago at the Museum of Fine Arts St. Petersburg. Yet it beautifully conveyed the adventurous spirit of live jazz, as John O’Leary (piano), Alejandro Arenas (standup bass) and Main Feinman (drums) communicated with each other, making both left and right turns communally, telepathically, through musical language.

From separate rooms, the three young musicians then described the way they write (“One Plus Two” is a Feinman composition), the way they arrange (everyone participates, and they all know when the tune is percolating just right) and they way they believe each man’s playing complements the others.

The three also revealed they wrote and recorded an entirely new album, their seventh, during the Covid pandemic (with numerous guest artists overdubbing their parts from cities spread across the world). Coming in November, it’s to be called New Holiday Classics. And O’Leary reveals his plans to cut a solo piano record in the near future.

Another great Cat Sessions interview with brilliantly-shining Tampa Bay creative lights.

Today on The Catalyst Sessions: Metals artist Frank Strunk III.

Streaming weekdays at 7 p.m. on the Catalyst Facebook page. All episodes are archived on our YouTube page.