Wolfert Brederode Trio, Black Ice

Wolfert Brederode is a pianist-composer whose intimate and dynamic musings seem tailor-made for the ECM Label sound. Black Ice (ECM 2476) brings to us his new trio, which integrates very nicely Gulli Gudmundsson's articulate double bass and Jasper van Hutten's orchestrally conceived drums in a beautiful program of 12 Brederode originals plus one by Gudmundsson.

This is, to tell the truth, my first exposure to Wolfert's artistry, so I have missed some quartet work and earlier trio sides. I am impressed, very impressed with him and the trio on this album. The music has a calm and lucidly gentle side, but also can kick up some dust. The idea of black ice has connotations of beauty but also of course danger. Wolfert had this in mind by so naming the album.

So the music is quite accessibly beautiful but contains a good deal that is quite musically sophisticated and has lurking beneath the surface some elements to challenge. a hint of danger.

In the end one grows into the music via a number of hearings. His ballad writing and playing is nothing short of ravishing, pianistically alive, and in all cases the trio works fully as a unit, a well-oiled responsive musical mechanism that is far from mechanical, but spontaneous and inspired throughout.

I am so glad to have the chance to hear this one. It will certainly be a fabulous and distinguished part of my stacks, but then it may well find itself getting many replays as a regular pull-out choice. Brederode is a startlingly total musical phenomenon, a true artist! Bravo!