I sat very near to or next to the greats at the Village Vanguard on many occasions, says the eminent drummer-composer-bandleader Bill Stewart, by way of contextualizing his - and the Criss Cross label's - first-ever live-at-the-Vanguard recording. During his early years in New York, before he ever played the hallowed basement, Stewart, now 58, frequently arrived early to claim the behind-the-drumkit position on the red banquette that runs along the Vanguard's west wall all the way to bandstand stage right to get a bird's eye view of Elvin Jones, Tony Williams, Roy Haynes, Billy Higgins, and a host of other masters whose recordings he'd played along with as an adolescent and teenage aspirant in Des Moines, Iowa. "When you sit close, you get the body language, the whole vibe of the drummer who you want to check out, " Stewart says. "That's the place." It's a sure bet that more than a few drum aspirants took pains to assess Stewart's vibe from that privileged perch between September 18 and September 23 in 2023, when he convened bassist Larry Grenadier and tenor saxophonist Walter Smith III for their third weeklong trio engagement at the Vanguard, following residencies in April 2017 and in October 2018. The latter engagement transpired around the trio's first album, Band Menu, a studio date that marked Stewart's first leader endeavor without a chordal instrument. "My first six recordings before the last one had piano, including two with Larry Goldings and Kevin Hays on keyboards, " saysStewart, who has made numerous organ trio albums with Goldings and guitarist Peter Bernstein, either led by Goldings or Bernstein or under the collective billing Goldings-Bernstein-Stewart. "I wanted to work with the open sound of the tenor trio. Not having a piano or guitar gives me the option to fill up more space with the drums or allow more space in the music. I was also thinking of the famous tenor-bass-drums recordings by Sonny Rollins and Joe Henderson at the Vanguard. So I felt it was time to document the trio playing in the room." The Album was recorded September 22 / 23, 2023 Live at the Village Vanguard, NYC. Recording engineer: James Farber. Mixing by Tyler McDiarmid. Mastering by Nate Wood. Produced by Bill Stewart. Photography by William Brown. Line up: Bill Stewart (drums) - Walter Smith III (tenor saxophone) - Larry Grenadier (bass)