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.
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