PETER ROSENDAL TRIO - Wondering

I class my uncovering of Peter Rosendal and his trio as the discovery of the decade and as his last 4 CD's testify for me at least (I bought them all ear unheard on the strength of Wondering) this is the best body of jazz trio work of the Noughties. There's really nothing I can fault with this superbly realised music - of all the trios I listen to his seems to have the strongest concept, the closest knit delivery, the most empathy and yes, the best tunes.

Like Helge Lien he breaks the cool Scandinavian mould by choosing some beautiful old standards to recondition like Moonriver and the playfully rendered It Could Happen To You, all played straight but with great reverence, the dynamics of his light and shade touch just like Helge, reintroducing us to new aspects of old friends. The originals though are the strength of Rosendal's body of work. Such creativity, so well constructed, totally contemporary but after 2 or 3 listens sounding like old friends. There seems to be no space between the three pairs of hands working together here but then there's all the space in the world as they find all the right grooves and tempos in a mixed but tidally unified set. If you were to put Red, Hampton, André, Bill, Herbie, McCoy, Keith, EST and Brad in a bowl and mix them all up, you still wouldn't have Rosendal but you'd be close. I love the way the piano, bass and drum solos just flow in and out of each other as part of the composition and the beautiful codas they come up with that take you to new places just when you thought you'd had them sussed - check out the township vamp at the end of The Balcony. His tunes like Poppy, The Moth, Delicate, The Duckling could be called poppy and/or folky but that's fine by me as they still have the jazz edge and he imbues them with micro tones of light and shade well beyond anyone from those genres. A trio of great democratic invention they now call themselves, and rightly so in my view, Rosendal.Earle.Templeton. Incredibly well recorded and generous in both time and variety, I'll try and review his other 3 CDs here another time (Live At Copenhagen Jazzhouse, Tide, Rodendal.Earle.Templeton).

Do you remember holding hands with your first love and feeling it completed something hitherto missing? Wonder no more.

BAPTISTE TROTIGNON - Share

Baptiste Trotignon can play the piano...no, scrub that, Baptiste Trotignon plays the piano very well...no, scratch that...Baptiste Trotignon belongs in the stella region of piano players. It's a bit unfortunate that his pose on the cover of this mixed trio and quintet recording makes you think he knows it too with its posed nonchalance but don't be fooled - this is a very, very good CD - actually my current favourite. He lets each song's story gently unfold, holding back his phenomenal technique until the emotional point needs to be made. His flowing improvised lines then swirl around between repeated hypnotic figures and runaway flights of fingers that sound like he's screwed in a sixth digit to his right hand - in other words, he's not afraid to milk the juice until the crescendo. Also a classic french romantic, at other times he'll sit back just marvelling in the strength of the melody, trying to find its inner muse like on Vibe where there's virtually no improvisation - just a reverence for the beautiful harmelody (my term) as it builds and builds. The very fast Red Light District sees him in full flood in a bluesy Hancock like improvisation that sounds like a fiercer than usual Le Mistral just entered the room. Mention must be made of this rhythm section - the drummer weaving such interesting textures and back beats as to make him along with the bassist equal partners. Mark Turner and Tom Harrell also appear on several beautifully constructed tracks like the bustling Dexter and Flow but rest assured this is no 'invite the American names for a few tracks to validate the talent' no sir - although not strictly coming under the terms and conditions of this blog, I'll listen to Baptiste in any situation, he's that good.

Do you remember going to your first proper concert when you were young and suddenly having a realisation of how incredibly finely tuned and 'calibrated' the musicians were in terms of their technique and allowing emotions to surface naturally through the music, not through nodding heads or bravura? Ah, Monsieur Trotignon - you're most welcome, do come in.

BERNARDO SASSETI TRIO - Nocturno

I'm still in a numbed but ecstatic shock at listening to the music of Portuguese pianist Bernardo Sassetti. I didn't think there was music being made today as jaw droppingly beautiful as this. Recorded so brilliantly it feels like you're perching on the piano stool able to hear his breath, each piece seems to harken to ghosts of piano past with a lineage ending (and beginning?) with Bill Evans (or Debussy?). Actually I'm fed up with reviews that always mention Bill Evans when any pianist shows a sensitive side and uses those close chord voicing but in this case, with all of Sassetti's nocturnal majesty, it's the right allusion. His smouldering cover of Time For Love should come with an 'adult content' warning, his tribute Monkais sans bass sounds like somebody juggling chairs. The elegance and classical stateliness of the pieces like Musica Callada remind you of the breadth, depth and width of latin music often consigned to overblown beats and mucho cowbells. Always interesting and never soporific, Nocturno is a privilege to have and listen to over and over again.

Do you remember as a child finding a book, in my case Sweet Thursday or Catcher in the Rye and feeling like it was a friend in bed with you and you couldn't believe the meaning on each page related directly to your life? Bienvenuto Bernardo.

ERIC LEGNINI TRIO - Trippin'

After an elegant serving of Scandinavian venison with a dill foam (see below review), Eric Legnini could be mistaken for a triple cheeseburger with extra fries in his approach but you'd be wrong. This collection of grooves has classic 60s and 70s' piano funk influences in their robustness and effervescence but his left and right hands, the drummer and bass player have certainly travelled all the main routes and side roads from Silvertown to Tynerville ending at the present day jazzpianotropolis to make this CD a massive waft of fresh air. And trust me, Fender Rhodes don't sound like that straight out of the box - he's been tweaking those pick-ups for maximum soul juice.

I've always admired people who speak on established themes with new enthusiasm, interpretations and belief and this is what it feels like listening to this exuberant music. How does he make all those mothers of all funk chords sound so fresh, as if played for the first time? But it's not all extrovert contemporary swing, his mellow side reveals an uncommon sensitivity and his choice of song like Stevie Wonder's Secret Life of Plants and the standard Darn That Dream show him to be a 360 degree musician with a mixed palette of moods and tempos. The drums and bass also deserve mention, finding all the right accents and then some you'd never thought were there - they're both masters of the art. Legnini's reconstruction of Shadow Of Your Smile into a threat full of foreboding hints of a darker more disturbed side that I suspect fuels the rest of his music, making it beautifully balanced on the edge of the precipice. For more than 55 minutes Eric and his trio make this planet a better place to be.

Do you remember as a child running down hill so fast that it felt like you were going to fall over but didn't and how good that felt? Enter Mr Legnini and his trio.

HELGE LIEN TRIO - To The Little Radio

It's easy to tar Scandinavian jazz with the brush of ECM glacial frostiness and the almost fanatic avoidance of resolving any song on a II/V/I chord combination (I jest, I love ECM). This 2008 release from the Helge Lien trio from Norway, with its Gershwin opener 'S Wonderful is a wonderful collection of old and new standards reinterpreted that proves the exception is often the rule. With an intriguing tracklist spanning songs written in the 1920s onwards, this music has an internal current of longing and lyrical clarity that drifts over you like the distant scent of incense burning (music that makes me mix metaphors is usually good). It's incredibly well played - Lien has a technique to die for - but is always germane and subservient to the emotion he communicates. The drummer who uses his hands as much as his brushes or sticks on what sounds like a minimal set up is impeccable as is the bass player Frode Berg who also shines bright. The meditation Lien makes of Little Sunflower with its almost imperceptible long fade is a highlight along with the parred away ballads like Strayhorn's Chelsea Bridge, Porter's So In Love and Kern's Look For The Silver Lining as well as the hauntingly beautiful title track which all seem to balance on mounds of ash. Beautiful, brooding but mellifluous music. Exceptional.

Do you remember as a child dipping your hand into a cool pond or letting it drag in the lazy current of a stream and it felt like a new universe between your fingers?

MY FIRST POST - Two Loves

After sending various recommendation emails to my friends around the world who also love jazz piano trios I've decided to join the vanity publishing sector and start a blog. I'm totally addicted to piano trios - I don't know why - maybe it's because the first jazz record I ever bought when I was 15 was a piano trio recording - Duke Jordan's Two Loves (Steeplechase 1973 - see picture above)- the smell, look and feel of that gloss black cover changed my life forever even before I'd left the shop (Ray's in London in 1978) and then when I finally spun the vinyl I was totally hooked. Actually I have quite a narrow piano trio taste that starts at Bill Evans and now meanders through Europe and the Americas taking in most of what's going on up to the edge of the avant garde (is that term still used??). I can tolerate some electronics but I have to say I'm quite an acoustic purist. The addiction is real I think - I'm driven to buy the music to get an even better hit than the last purchase but in the world of the itunes 30 second review and my other obsession of checking out the album's on-line reviews before clicking the one click buy button, you can probably say it's not that bad and even quite informed.

Music is my life's glue - without it I'd probably be muttering to myself in an institution's vegetable garden in white pyjamas waiting for my next visitor. Good piano trio music is the medication my doctor would be bringing me once he'd realised I'd popped my straight jacket.

I've learnt that the deeper you dig the more rewards you'll find. It's easy to think of contemporary piano trio music as being dominated by Keith Jarrett, Brad Mehldau, ECM, EST and Bad Plus (all of whom I love by the way) but these are only the tip of the iceberg. In the deepest corners of itunes (since finding one of my CDs on a Russian mp3 site selling for 15 bucks a few years back I'm a believer in buying music legally) I've found some music that'll be on my ipod until my dying day and give me hours of insight into what beauty, for me at least, really sounds like.

So, enjoy the reviews - they're not ordered in any way, just randomly entered when I get the time and inspiration.