Ches Smith, The Bell

Chamber jazz has come an exceedingly long way from the days of John Kirby or the Duke-Strayhorn-Pettiford sides, so long that many readers may not know the recordings I allude to in this sentence. No matter for now. The advance of the idiom brings us no closer to the future than with the new trio recording of drummer-composer Ches Smith, The Bell (ECM B0024388-02). Eight Smith compositions are featured, as played by Ches on drums, vibes and tympani, Craig Taborn on piano and Mat Manieri on viola. These form a near ideal triumvirate in their exacting attention to detail and their concentration on sonic expressivity.

These are very modern effusions that owe something to the tutelage and "good ideas" Ches absorbed from Pauline Oliveros, Alvin Curran, Fred Frith and William Winant during his studies at Mills College. But then it is what he has done with the conceptual frameworks suggested to him by these luminaries that puts his music in a special place. The pieces were written with this trio in mind, with their ability to take the frameworks and create a spontaneous in-the-moment immediacy that blossoms forth here dramatically, strikingly with the special ambient sonic carpet created by Manfred Eicher's production.

Each of the trio members make for themselves a stylistic universe that meshes together in a three-way set of travels where all get equal space and all are distinctively themselves. It so happens, happily, that Smith's music serves the originality of the three especially well. So much so that it is difficult imagining another threesome playing the music, at least not the way it unfolds on the album.

There is an intelligent introspection to this music that has the ability to break out into more extroverted dramatics without breaking stride. That is the sort of seamlessness that this music embodies.

It is something that stands out and manages to be outstanding without calling attention to itself in the more overt ways. It is a special set. Impressively, so.  Movingly, so.

If you happen to be in NYC on this March 25th, the trio is playing at the Rubin Museum of Art. Check the net listings for details.

Farmers By Nature, Love and Ghosts, Gerald Cleaver, William Parker, Craig Taborn

Love and Ghosts (AUM Fidelity 089/90) constitutes the latest, third album by Farmers By Nature, the name given the trio of Gerald Cleaver (drums), William Parker (contrabass) and Craig Taborn (piano). It is officially on the streets August 12th but you can order it now directly from the label.

I don't believe I've heard the first two albums, but I can say that this double live set is some of the finest avant piano trio music I've heard so far this year.

What's so impressive is the wide variety of territories and moods the trio covers. They can get inside themselves collectively and give out with some very inner musings, they can worry phrases until they become cosmic otherness, and they can scorch you with some heavy statements of transcendence.

The remarkable interplay of three equal partners makes for music that rivets. William Parker is lucid and supercharged with ideas; Gerald Cleaver plays with an aural awareness most drummers don't get near; and Craig Taborn never sounded better on piano, hiply chordal, melodically alive, tumbling into open zones without a safety net, taking risks that pay off every time, locking into patterns that develop and set the stage for a further ripping apart of the heavens.

Seriously this one blows you away. Two full CDs of live trio and they never flag while giving your ears much to digest and dig.

This is a holy grail of free music in many ways. It's one excellent example of what a free-avant piano trio can do when all members are gifted and inspired.

Just get it!

The Eldorado Trio (Sclavis, Taborn, Rainey) Takes No Prisoners

It seems like with so many interesting releases coming out of Clean Feed records lately that it might be easy to miss a few. The Eldorado Trio (Clean Feed 193) CD could be one of those, but it really shouldn't be. The disk features studio and live cuts captured last year in Porto, Portugal. Of the eight pieces featured on the release, five are by Louis Sclavis, who plays a very together soprano sax and bass clarinet throughout; the rest are collective group compositions.

This is some very impressive music of the avant-free improvisation sort. Sclavis holds forth with articulate poise and confidence; Craig Taborn is loose and inventive on the acoustic and electric piano; and Tom Rainey plays inspired drums. It is the band as a total unit, though, that makes for the most impressive impact. All three players are contributing in a direct way to the outcome of the performances. It's not a solo and accompaniment situation for the most part.

And what an outcome. This one gives you the art of improvisation at its most modern and advanced. It's not so much an energy honk-out sort of date as much as it is a reshaping of what is modern about modernity. But whew just hear this one and you'll get what my words only point to. The Eldorado Trio is a kicking ensemble!