Trio 4 (2012)

Pianist Brad Mehldau has regularly performed with his trio, which has included bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jeff Ballard since 2004, when the latter replaced Jorge Rossy. As a trio, they've spent relatively little time in the studio together exclusively - it's been seven years since Day Is Done. On 2010's Highway Rider, Mehldau augmented the group with Matt Chamberlain, Joshua Redman, and an orchestra. Ode marks the very first album comprised of all Mehldau material cut by this trio. While the title may reflect a a certain ponderousness, these 11 tunes are anything but. Specifically written for this group, they show off an increasingly muscular sense of interplay and stylistic athleticism that wasn't nearly as present on Day Is Done. "M.B." (written in memory of Michael Brecker) states a bluesy theme and moves off into several directions, seemingly at once…

Four years after “Cantando”, a new album from the Bobo Stenson Trio – recorded in Lugano last December – explores a broad arc of material. Here we find: free playing (the trio has its own, fresh approach to collective improvising), tunes by Bill Evans (“Your Story”, offered here as a tribute to Paul Motian, for whom this tune was a favourite) and by George Russell (“Event VI” from “Living Time”, another piece associated with Evans), Danish composer Carl Nielsen’s “Oft Am I Glad”, a Norwegian hymn (in an arrangement by Anders Jormin and folk singer Sinikka Langeland), contemporary composition by Norway’s Ola Gjeilo, a Wolf Biermann protest song, Argentine composer Ariel Ramírez’s folkloric “La Peregrinación”, and more. Wide-ranging repertoire has become a hallmark of Bobo Stenson recordings. But it’s not just the eclecticism that is striking.

"Equilibrium“ is the ECM debut of a German/Canadian/Spanish trio, which through frequent touring has grown into a remarkably tight and stylistically unique unit in recent years. Fuelled by the tension created through the contrasting styles of pianist Benedikt Jahnel (whose approach is characterised by an unusual interest in rhythmic subdivisions) and drummer Howard (who, in Jahnels words, “treats and perceives rhythmic phrases as melodical lines without fixed micro units”), and with bass player Antonio Miguel often the musical mediator, the group’s sound draws subtly from classical influences as well as contemporary concepts of groove. Leader Jahnel, also known as a member of Cyminology, has sharpened his profile playing with the Metropol Orchestra, Phil Woods, Johannes Enders, Charlie Mariano, Wolfgang Muthspiel, Dave Liebman and John Abercrombie.

Eric Legnini Trio - Ballads (2012) {Discograph ‎6149782}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 227 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 113 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 21 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2012 Anteprima / Discograph ‎| 6149782
Jazz / Contemporary Jazz / Cool / Straight-Ahead Jazz / Piano

After venturing into funk-soul territory with 2011's The Vox, Belgian pianist Eric Legnini returns to more traditional jazz fare with his ninth studio album, Ballads. Joined by bassist Thomas Bramerie and drummer Franck Agulhon, its 15 acoustic tracks include covers of popular standards penned by the likes of Duke Ellington ("In a Sentimental Mood," "Prelude to a Kiss"), Ira Gershwin ("I Can't Get Started"), and Kern & Harbach ("Smoke Gets in Your Eyes"), alongside five original compositions.

Masabumi Kikuchi Trio - Sunrise (2012) {ECM 2096}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 260 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 125 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (jpg) -> 139 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2012 ECM Records | ECM 2096
Jazz / Post Bop / Modern Jazz / Piano

An ECM debut from Masabumi Kikuchi and a last session from the great Paul Motian. Motian and Kikuchi were friends for many years and Paul understood the idiosyncracies and the wayward charm of the Japanese pianist’s highly personal style perhaps better than anyone. The trio - completed by Zen bassist Thomas Morgan - makes new art out of the interactive free rubato ballad. A strangely beautiful album.

The World Kora Trio is American cellist Eric Longsworth, kora player Cherif Soumano from Mali, and French percussionist David Mirandon. Their music is the encounter of cultures from three continents, “World music” in the truest sense. The colors of African music embodied by the kora resonate with the jazz and folk universe of the electric cello, and the varied percussions add spice and rhythmic vitality. The compositions are original, brought alive by constant improvisation and interaction, and the pleasure these three musicians have to be on stage together is palpable. Jazz, folk, rock, Maghreb flavours and blues come together with African tradition to create music without borders. Based in France, the World Kora Trio has toured in Canada, Mexico and Europe, and has played notably in Mali, Moldavia, Corsica, and Poland.

Louis Sclavis’s band of the season is the Atlas Trio, an ensemble with a global reach of reference. Chamber-improvisation, polyrhythmic grooves, minimalistic pulse patterns, enveloping ambience, rhapsodic piano and funky Fender Rhodes, distorted guitar, clarinet soliloquies, contrapuntal themes, free group playing, a bit of everything. An open-form aesthetic applies in multi-facetted music simultaneously exploratory and involving. Recorded in the South of France last September, the album - Louis’s ninth for ECM – features a programme of new Sclavis compositions, and is issued in time for tour dates including a major showcase at the Europa Jazz Festival in Le Mans.

Wisdom and wistfulness are intertwined in “Wisteria”, whose title track, written by Art Farmer, takes us back to the early 60s, when both Steve Kuhn and Steve Swallow sang softly of the blues in the trumpeter-flugelhornist’s band. They’ve shared a lot of history since then. Swallow played on Kuhn’s classic “Trance”; Kuhn played on Swallow’s “Home” and “So There”. Drummer Joey Baron has been heard with Kuhn on ECM discs including “Remembering Tomorrow” and the dazzling tribute disc “Mostly Coltrane”. This new album takes a fresh look at several pieces heard in Kuhn’s orchestral “Promises Kept” collection, but alongside the aching balladry there is also some driving hard bop (on “A Likely Story”) , a brace of Swallow tunes (“Dark Glasses”), Carla Bley’s gospel-tinged “Permanent Wave” and the Brazilian “Romance” by Dori Caymmi.