David Arner Trio, "Porgy and Bess, Act 2," with Michael Bisio, Jay Rosen

David Arner does not easily pigeonhole. In a way he's the complete jazz-improv pianist, with his sensibility steeped in jazz history and harmony, capable of evoking references to stylistic periods far flung from ours, then embarking on an outside excursion that expresses his modern avant stance beautifully. He encompasses and transforms.

So when he decided to record his impressions of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess it turned out to make lots of sense. For this project he gathered two of the finest improvisers and most sensitive bandmate interactors to go it with him together. There's Michael Bisio, a bassist of great depth and flexibility, and bandleader in his own right. And there's Jay Rosen, best known perhaps for his drumming with Trio X, a musician's drummer who can be called upon to add his trappist drum Monking to any sort of setting with success and artistry.

We looked at the first volume of the project some time ago (see posting from December 9, 2009). Today it is time for Porgy/Bess, Act 2 (CIMP 377), which is in no way a let down from volume one, but rather just as strong.

As in the first effort the principal themes of Gershwin's standards-chockablock weave in and out of the music with free interpretation, interpolation and freely articulated tangents as commentary and expressive impressions.

It's music that can be very subtle at times, very bold and assertive, others.

There is a good deal of space for Arner's fertile imagination and creative improvs. Michael and Jay play critical roles as well, and not just as accompanying fellow-travelers. There are unaccompanied solos by all as well and two- and three-way dialogues.

It shows the artistry of Mr. Arner in full bloom, and the trio at their creative best.

David Arner is one of those must-hear pianists on the scene. This is a great place to hear him. Very much recommended.

Grunen Gets A Green Light For Its Advanced Piano Trio Improv

We are back again on a Monday morning after a recharging weekend. And we greet the week with a strong piano trio whose new album is titled appropriately Grunen (Clean Feed 202). The music is like a luxuriant springing up of plant life. And like a naturally flourishing patch of green the music does not follow a regimented order of how to develop and grow in tandem, but rather fills the spaces and leaves others in ways that are anarchically beautiful.

For the record (and otherwise) Grunen features pianist Adam Kaufmann, bassist Robert Landfermann and Christian Lillinger on the drums. This is most definitely NOT a Bill Evans type trio. It begins and ends on the edges of musical abstraction. Each member is integral to the whole. Adam Kaufmann plays with a great variety of attacks (including the conventional, inside-the-piano and prepared). He creates brilliantly brittle new music-oriented clusters, melodic fragments and sharply edged chords while Landfermann and Lillinger work to create a sponteneously out counterpoint of sounds and pitch-noise eruptions.

This is by now an approach that has a fairly long lineage from early Bley and Cecil through to a good number of others.

And it's not that what they are doing is brand spanking new on the improv scene. What counts is that they do it so well. It's obvious on listening that all three musicians have gained a real control and facility for the outside improvisational possibilities of their instruments and they combine together in ways that fascinate and provoke your attention.

The out piano trio has a winning new three-way promulgation on Grunen. It's really four-way, though, because you the listener are invited, even required to participate by unraveling the inherent logic of their free dialogs. There's much here to piece together in the aural imagination. Very much recommended.