An Autumn Collection 2011

HELGE LIEN TRIO - Natsukashii

Another impeccable release from my favourite trio - more contemplative than their previous Hello Troll with deep reflections and pristine sketches of memory. Sublime

MARCIN WASILEWSKI TRIO - Faithful

A fantastic new release from the trio who for me at least started the current trio renaissance. It has great depth and concept. I was lucky enough to see them live in Newcastle some years back and they didn't disappoint for one second.

FRANZ VON CHOSSY - Pendulum

Can you believe it? Another A-list German trio. Beautiful original compositions full of allure and a classical sensibility. Often played this summer to add a skip to my step.

JACOB KARLZON 3 - The Big Picture

Swede Karlzon continues his musical journey with this release - his best yet. Ambitious in scope with an amazing attention to detail and ensemble arrangements - I'm yet to find the right vocabulary to describe the sound they make. Highly recommended

RGG - One

Grade A Polish trio with contemporary approach like Helge Lien where it's all about intimate conversation and the interchangeability of piano, bass and drums. Absolutely beautiful from beginning to end.

ART HIRAHARA TRIO - Noble Path

Art Hirahara’s new debut CD Noble Path is full of well crafted stories told in a contemporary style that borrows more from the mainstream than the modern – but don’t let that fool you - this is an exciting new trio with depth and width in their vision and execution. Hirahara builds tension and excitement with two hands, the left locking into full fingered voicings and the right exploring multiple runs and percussive accents that never seem to lack imagination, surprise or momentum. The opening Hirahara original, the easy going I’m OK, could have come from the pen of Tadd Dameron and indeed there are four underplayed standards here rendered with great maturity and ease of expression beyond his years, Con Alma, Ellington’s beautiful Isfahan, All or Nothing At All and Porter’s Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye. But it is the Hirahara originals that intrigue the most with an unpredictable turn of harmony and a gradual layering of harmonic and melodic intensity – those story telling hands have a lot to say.

Yoshi Waki on bass and Dan Aran on drums are Hirahara’s equals and for the trio’s next release I want to hear many more solos especially from Waki who, with Aran, is top flight. Listen carefully and you can here how he converses but occasionally I’d like to hear him make a speech! On the brilliantly constructed Noble Path his playing is superb.

It sounds like this grouping has played often and after a while when you disengage your ears directly from the three music elements and focus on the shared musical thrust you feel the ebb and flow (one of Art’s best originals in this collection is called Ebb and Flow) of a music that although erring on the mainstream is played by three souls who have mastered the craft of musical communication both within their trio and with the listener. From the excellent Posi-Tone label - highly recommend.

A SPRING FLOURISH

REMI PANOSSIAN TRIO - Add Fiction

Very creative release from Frenchman Panossian with his new trio. Sprightly and showing hints of Trichotomy but with enough of their own good tunes and nice tinges of folk and classical in the mix. I'm welcoming them to the trio-scene with open ears.

TRICHOTOMY - The Gentle War

Speaking of Trichotomy, here is their next very welcome release and follow-up to my reviewed Variations. More of the same but that doesn't mean a rut. Same variety, same diverse musical manifesto but with a tad more identity and confidence.

MEADOW - Blissful ignorance

OK so not piano bass and drums, but anything with my hero John Taylor on is worthy of a mention. A very special record here, unbelievable recording quality, memorable tunes soulfully rendered. Is this a one off or are we allowed to look forward to more like this? Not ECM but hints here, John Taylor is one of the few pianists I know where you don't miss the bass when there isn't one.

CEDRIC HANRIOT TRIO - French Stories

Just when we thought it might be Jef Neve pointing the new way for the acoustic trio along comes Hanriot with this interesting and highly creative release. Helped along by two legends, Lynne-Carrington and Patitucci and other flavours here and there, I love the way Hanriot reinterprets traditional French songs whilst adding found sounds, spoken word and cellos in the mix. Exciting.

KIT DOWNES TRIO - Quiet Tiger

What can I say? One of the strongest UK trio releases since the Curios and a prize winner of great depth, beauty and creative expressions. It's almost scary how Downes has accelerated into the top of the trio A list in a relatively short time. A masterpiece.

IIRO RANTALA - Lost Heroes

A beautifully made solo piano outing by Finn, Rantala, paying homage to mostly recently lost piano heroes. At once profoundly moving and uplifting and another swinging and muscular, I'm now looking forward to a trio release from him. He possesses a perfectly sparkling right hand at any tempo.

YOSUKE YAMAGATA TRIO - Spider

Not a recent release, in fact this came out in the mid 1970s, but it sounds like it could have been recorded in the Rainbow studio last week. Utterly brilliant Yamagata on top form with New York trio. I was lucky to see him perform in Hanoi recently coincidentally on the same day the Tsunami hit Japan. A great night and his hastily prepared but eloquently delivered tribute to the victims was a moving moment never to be forgotten. Essential listening from one of Japan's greatest jazz pianists.

MAGNUS HJORTH TRIO - Old New Borrowed Blue

As the jazz trio sector expands relentlessly, it is nothing short of a phenomenon how quality, diversity and variety are being maintained and even increased. The time of EST, Brad Mehldau, Bad Plus sound-alike clones (if they ever existed at all) is over and we’re now in a rich verdant meadow that has matured – the great piano trio resurgence of the early 2000s has grown up and taken root – the genre is well and truly rocking day in and day out.

Take Scandinavia. Once easily tarred with the glacial ECM brush it now boasts a diversity of musicians on a wide spectrum of piano styles. In this slipstream along comes newcomer Magnus Hjorth with a great first album Old New Borrowed Blue that makes no excuses for its wide, even mainstream, appeal. But that would be laying on more tar as this is a new release to be reckoned with. This Swede is standing close to the cooker and he doesn’t care what melts.

Basically I have to come clean – yes my preference is for timeless majestic trios that gently caress the soul but I’m also partial to the funk monkeys who have the chops, the tempos and the momentum to rock up a storm and doff a respectful cap to anyone on the jazz piano spectrum from Scott Joplin onwards.

The trio’s opener Qloose is one such track – unbridled fun and with chops to spare it reminds me of an Eric Legnini stomper. Ballroom Steps mixes nostalgia with a poppy theme that is pure taste and whimsy. Let’s Face The Music and Dance finds the trio playing with time at extreme tempo that seems to be attached to a rubber band they stretch and release at will. I love the playfulness and fun the band seem to be having in these complex and technically difficult arrangements. The medium muscular stroll through a re-harmonised Stompin’ At the Savoy is yet more evidence that this new band aren’t afraid to play standards when it might be more hip to play some abstract originals. Goodness, Hjorth isn’t even afraid to play stride. Hjorth can sound like McCoy Tyner at times like on Barber Rhett and then skip between him and Earl Hines like on Good Friday. Sunday Service is a gentle gospel infused piece with Ellingtonian overtones in the twists and turns of the harmony. The closer, an up tempo, Madhouse sounds as fleet fingered as the brace of McCoy Tyner trios albums on Impulse recorded in the early 1960s. Lovely brushwork here by Snorre Kirk and fat toned rapid tempo bass work by the excellent Petter Eldh on bass. We’re left with the feeling that the trio aren’t here to pander but they aren’t afraid to spread the jam over a range of styles either. Bravo.