In a joyous reunion after a long, 7-year hiatus, the Neil Cowley Trio reconvene giving rise to a creatively inspired recording, Entity, their 7th studio album.
In a joyous reunion after a long, 7-year hiatus, the Neil Cowley Trio reconvene giving rise to a creatively inspired recording, Entity, their 7th studio album.
The pop-aware UK jazz pianist Neil Cowley – frequently a thinker outside boxes – has not only spent three years developing this Arthur C Clarke-inspired concept album, but is releasing the results as a sheet-music “single”, an interactive website, a graphic novel and more. His hypnotic music has often resembled a soundtrack to visuals, but there’s more than enough distinction in this 11-piece tracklist to consider it a musical advance, not just a platform-extending conceptual one. Cowley and his regular jazz trio (assisted a little by Brian Eno FX artist Leo Abrahams), deliver a characteristic programme of sonorously looping song-hooks, pounding rock-piano patterns and baroque counterpoints, but this time in a more laid-back and low-lit manner.
The title of this latest release from bassist Neil Swainson is fitting: HERE FOR A WHILE. Amen to that. At 68, he’s had not just a long career, but a most distinguished and impactful one. In Canada and internationally, a world-class musician.