Album Review: Northbound to Finch, by Maria Kaushansky (2025)

Northbound to Finch is the debut album from talented jazz pianist Maria Kaushansky. Released in October of 2025, the album features 9 of Kaushansky’s original compositions, along with 6 alternate takes of the songs. Kaushansky performs the songs with her trio of Paul Gill on bass and Anthony Pinciotti on drums. 

Kaushansky’s compositions highlight her range and versatility as both a piano player and a composer. Her piano playing is melodic and graceful, and her improvisations are always brimming with creative energy. Many of the song titles refer to places in Toronto, where Kaushansky grew up. All of the songs on the album are excellent. Here are my thoughts and impressions of the songs.

The song “Northbound to Finch” has the easy, understated grace of a ballet dancer about it, but also a propulsive energy and sense of swing that moves you forward. The song's title is a nod to Finch station, a major stop on the Toronto subway, and the song gives you the feel of a busy city during rush hour. 

“Windchill -30” is one of my favorite songs on the album. As someone who lives in Minnesota, where we actually had –30 windchills in mid-January, the title of this song appealed to me. The song opens with a long bass solo by Gill, before Pinciotti joins in, and Kaushansky states the melody line. Flurries of notes become evocative of falling snow, as the winter cold deepens. But the groove of the song is anything but chilly. The song highlights the tight interplay among the three musicians, and the easy give and take they have. This song reminds me of Dave Brubeck, and “Windchill -30” feels like it could easily join the lineup of classic Brubeck albums like Jazz Impressions of Eurasia. Pinciotti has an excellent drum solo at the end of the song.

“So Long Centerpoint Mall” is a wistful, poignant song. It strikes me as a very autumnal song. Gill has an excellent bass solo, and Kaushansky’s solo is great as well, alternatively laid-back and driving. 

“Last Call at the Green Room,” named after a favorite watering hole, has a quick and lively melody that is a good representation of the frenetic energy at a bar when last call is announced and it’s time to head home. Since the green room is also where performers hang out before and after the show, you can also imagine the nervous energy of the song coming from that tense moment of expectation just before a live performance begins. The ending features a terrific drum solo from Pinciotti. 

“Tangreen Court” has a beautiful, hypnotic melody that keeps coming back to a three-note motif that to me suggests a voice singing “Tangreen Court.” The song is a great showcase for Pinciotti’s drumming, as he keeps laying down tasty fills over Kaushansky’s repetition of the three-note motif. 

“512 St. Clair” opens with a drum solo, and features an insistent melody from Kaushansky. There’s some lovely arco bass playing by Gill on this track. 

“Prelude” is a short piece, just over two minutes long, highlighting Kaushansky’s classical piano training. 

“Newtonbrook” is a song with a lovely melody. It’s not quite a ballad and not quite a swing tune, rather it inhabits an in-between place that is a very nice place to visit. 

“Four One Six” is a groovy boogaloo, and this song will have you tapping your feet and bopping along. I’ve always been a fan of the boogaloo tunes from the 1960’s that Ramsey Lewis, Lee Morgan, Hank Mobley and others had hits with. “Four One Six” is a groovy delight, and the title is a reference to Toronto’s area code. Kaushansky’s trills and riffs here are a treat for the ear, as she swings with gusto to close out the album. 

Sadly, drummer Anthony Pinciotti passed away just weeks after the recording session for Northbound to Finch, making this his last recorded appearance. As a tribute, Kaushansky decided to release all six of the alternate takes from the session as well. The alternate takes are well worth the listeners’ time, and they show how great jazz musicians create something different every time they play a song.

Piano trios are one of my favorite jazz group formations. It seems there’s no end to creativity when talented pianists, bassists, and drummers get together. I was quite delighted to discover Kaushansky’s music and this excellent album. There have been many classic piano trios throughout jazz history: Nat King Cole, Ahmad Jamal, Oscar Peterson, Ramsey Lewis, Bill Evans, Wynton Kelly, and Keith Jarrett, to name just a few of my own personal favorites. 

Some of Kaushansky’s favorite pianists are Bill Evans, Red Garland, Wynton Kelly, Chick Corea, Brad Mehldau, and Keith Jarrett. Another favorite of hers is Harvey Diamond, who is based in Boston and studied with the great Lennie Tristano. It’s an interesting list of pianists, and something many of them have in common is stylistic flexibility, the ability to move between different genres with easy fluidity. While there are shades of those pianists evident in Kaushansky’s work, she clearly has her own style on the keyboard. 

In addition to having residencies at restaurants in New York City, Kaushansky also plays piano for ballet rehearsals. When she recorded the album Northbound to Finch, she also recorded versions of her songs for ballet exercises. It’s a masterful feat of re-arrangement, to listen to the ballet album after the jazz album and hear these familiar melodies transposed into a new setting. The ballet album is titled Northbound to Finch (Music for Ballet Class). It’s a pretty remarkable feat for Kaushansky’s trio to record the jazz album and the ballet album on the same day. Along with the alternate takes on the jazz album, that comes out to about 97 minutes of music, a very good day’s work indeed!  

If you’re a fan of jazz music and piano trios, you should check out Maria Kaushansky’s music. You can find her website here, and she also has a Bandcamp page where you can purchase the digital version of Northbound to Finch. Northbound to Finch is a strong debut album, and it heralds the arrival of a singular new talent in jazz piano.

Book Review: Attack the Lusitania! by Raymond Hitchcock (1979)

Attack the Lusitania! is a historical novel written by Raymond Hitchcock. The British passenger liner RMS Lusitania was one of the fastest and most luxurious ships of its day. The Lusitania was torpedoed by a German submarine on May 7, 1915. The ship sank in just 18 minutes, and nearly 1,200 people lost their lives. Hitchcock’s novel, published in 1979, explores the possibility that the British government plotted to attack the Lusitania in an attempt to draw the United States into World War I. This is not as far-fetched an idea as you might think. The Admiralty took a lot of heat in 1915 for not adequately protecting the Lusitania, as the Germans were scaling up their submarine warfare. Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty, was reeling from both the failure of the Gallipoli invasion, and the sinking of the Lusitania, and he was forced to resign his post less than three weeks after the Lusitania was sunk. Ever since 1915, there have been conspiracy theories that the British did not do enough to protect the Lusitania.  

For his novel, Hitchcock invented the character of Captain Gavin Tweedman, Director of Naval Intelligence. Tweedman is a colorful character, a racing devotee who lost his left leg in a car crash. Tweedman also hatches the plot for a British submarine, disguised as a German U-boat, to make the attack on the Lusitania off the coast of Ireland, as it heads for Liverpool. Tweedman does not want to sink the ocean liner, just merely damage it so it can limp back into port, and then blame the attack on the Germans, ensuring that the United States will enter the war.  

The plot obviously requires secrecy and subterfuge, and there’s a cast of colorful characters that Tweedman must manipulate for his plan to succeed. I won’t spoil any more of the plot but Attack the Lusitania! is a fun and engaging historical thriller. I’ve been intrigued by the Lusitania since I read Erik Larson’s 2015 book Dead Wake, a fascinating account of the liner’s final voyage.  

Apart from being fascinated by ships and shipwrecks, there’s another reason why I read Attack the Lusitania! Raymond Hitchcock’s son is the very talented singer and songwriter Robyn Hitchcock, who’s one of my favorite musicians. I’ve known for a while that Robyn’s father was a painter and a novelist, so when I found Attack the Lusitania! at an antique store, I had to get it. While reading Raymond’s novel, I’ve been listening to Robyn’s remixed version of his 1988 album Globe of Frogs. There’s a wonderful connection between the novel, about a terrible naval tragedy, and Robyn’s song “Luminous Rose,” with its visions of “drowned sailors and dead airmen.” Robyn sings “The sea is so much deeper than the grave,” a fitting epitaph for his father’s novel as well.