trio \ DEF - updated w/ review links, etc.

Congrats on the new project! I will check it out this weekend... sounds great!

 

Several listens in... bought on itunes... sounds great!!! Great playing, man!!!

 

Way to go Wayne. Getting ready to leave on break. I will get it when I get back.

ps/gfm

 

I've been trying for nearly four weeks to find some way to describe this wonderful album. Finally, today, I figured out why I've been unable to do it.

I'm just not a poet.

I'm not a poet -- and trio \ DEF is nothing if not collective, improvised poetry. Sensitive, evocative, courageous, and imaginative. True.

There are frequent points in listening to this album where the overwhelming impression is of one extraordinary musical brain concurrently improvising on three different instruments. Effortlessly synchronized, with each instrument standing out in turn before blending back into the ensemble. Undoubtedly, the excellent job of mastering done on trio plays a huge role here, but no mastering can frame musical empathy unless it's there to begin with. And it is, in so many ways. The timbres of all instruments are perfect for the music, both sometimes familiar and then pleasantly, startlingly unique. You'll variously hear hints of Wayne Krantz, John Scofield, John McLaughlin from his Miles days, Abercrombie perhaps, and a hint sometimes of early Pat Metheny. But just hints, as in the way in the kitchen of a master chef you'll notice aromas of familiar ingredients delightfully mingling with other aromas, new and complex and drawing you in to know more about what they are and what line of artistic, masterful, and creative thought produced them.

For those of us who have been following Wayne through his previous works and collaborations, there is a satisfying sense that he is most in his place here, in this setting, with these collaborators, and with these compositions. Wayne has elected for tones of warmth, clarity, and harmonic complexity. You can always hear exactly what he's thinking, and what's he's thinking about is the music. Particularly in a trio setting, the temptation can be enormous to draw attention to how much time you've been practicing. But the flourishes of technique that do flash from time to time always suit the music -- Wayne is clearly thinking about expressing music, and he clearly has been thinking about music, and expressing it, for decades. In a lesser musician, or in a bigger ego, you'll be beat over the head with a performance of practice. But trio \ DEF is a deep well, and after four weeks of listening every day, I've been unable to hit "eject" and put the CD back it the case.

One of my favorite discoveries in this album is bassist Marc-Andre Drouin, and how he has discovered how to seamlessly switch from accompaniment to soloist, adjusting his timbre and register on the instrument so the low end is emphasized while he is in a supporting role, and as he steps out his timbre changes to a sort of fat clarity that is expressive and articulate. Why doesn't it seem like more bassists know how to do this? Drouin's playing and excellent use of timbre changes on this album is the answer to a question once asked me from a bassist: "Why does everyone play softer when I play a solo?" It's because otherwise, no one can hear what you're playing! Drouin's playing is thoughtful and magnificent, and it's so great that you can hear every bit of it.

Another delight is drummer Ian Froman. There are some drummers who just seem to have telepathy, and play perfectly in sync with the composition and how it evolves during improvisation. Ian always seems to play just exactly the thing that I was hoping to hear the drums do, at any and every given point. It's utterly uncanny, and fits in perfectly with the music and his fellow musicians here. It's impeccable, wonderful playing.

The final and ongoing pleasure is the compositions themselves. This is music that must be improvised. Not in explanation of how it came to be, but as an imperative driven by the compositions themselves. So often in jazz, there's a standard, or a chord progression in some structured form, that players take turns soloing over as though the point of music is to play over a backing track. But you can hear the joy and challenge of the entire trio as they work through the compositions, knowing that it's up to them and their inventiveness to make these fine compositions compelling in their performance. Throughout the entire album, trio \ DEF never fails to mine these works and show, with each listen, something new not noticed the last time through. This is music that holds up.

 

It's a great album, Wayne, and a major milestone, in my humble opinion, in your oeuvre.

 

I was listening to "How's Now" today when it came up on my iPod (been 10 years or so) - great songs and i really like the first two clips. I will get the new one. Alex

 

This is a remarkable record. It really holds up, and the integrity and skill and musicality of the tunes and ensemble work is consistently *there* in every performance.

Chemistry and attention. Sensitivity all around. Big skills, strong writing, big ears!

(Proud to have been a part of its birthing, however minimally.)