The bond between musicians can be more than a strong rapport on the bandstand. Sometimes the intuitiveness can be so robust that a partnership between two musicians can supersede any musical combination that could be put around it. This is precisely what Hayes Greenfield and Dean Johnson have found in their musical partnership and is on full display on their new recording, Lover To You.

Greenfield first met bassist Johnson while they were both studying at the Berklee College of Music in the mid-1970s. It took them another decade to begin playing together regularly in different configurations in New York City. Their work in quartets and trios helped the two develop a conversational style of play. They soon found that they really didn’t need other musicians to enhance what they already had as a duo, a formation that they have been revisiting for nearly 20 years.

Over the past few years, the duo had begun to play regularly at Greenfield’s brother’s Soapbox Gallery in Brooklyn. Their monthly appearances helped strengthen their material and over a span of three months in 2023, as each appearance was recorded, Greenfield and Johnson found takes that they felt demonstrated their easy-going yet dynamic approach. They decided to collate these pieces into a recording to document their work.