![]() “Les Trois Lagons” is one, multi-sectioned composition that already started life in trio clothes, a fifteen minute sweep of styles beginning with Sheppard’s bop chops, moving to one of Swallow’s gorgeous moody expressions and finally, Bley’s spiraling descending figure. The remaining three selections are each three-part suites, great examples of Bley’s ability to weave a theme throughout several episodes and make it sound come off uncomplicated with an appealing flow. ![]() Here in the composer’s hands, the cracks and crevices of this Middle Eastern tinged melody are revealed, thanks to a perfect alliance between Bley and Swallow. “Vashkar” here bears very little resemblance to the best-known fusion explosion by Tony Williams’ Lifetime (and the Lifetime semi-tribute band Spectrum Road). We play it very close to the way it was written.” Since “Utviklongssang” is a well-written folk strain with a Nordic flavor, it’s a strategy that works rather well. In fact, the performance follows the very simple strategy put forth by Bley: “We just play the music and take some solos. For those looking for extended soloing from Bley herself will have to look elsewhere, she is locked in on melody and harmony and leaves the choicest improvising moments to her two cohorts. There’s no anger to be found here, however, it unfolds like a flower beginning with Swallow’s patented lyrical bass lines. Since this trio has been an ongoing entity for some twenty years, it’s doubtful that there was much left for Eicher to add in terms of arrangements, but he did choose which Bley songs to record and the running order of those songs, which did much to shape the character of Trios.Įicher’s influence is felt right from the start in choosing the program to begin with a slower, quieter tune, “Utviklongssang,” a protest song that means “Development Song” in Norwegian. Along with that, she is recording for the ECM label proper for the first time (her records from the WATT imprint are only distributed by ECM). This small combo was last represented on record with 1995’s live album Songs With Legs.įor the first time on a Carla Bley-led record, she’s recording under direction of a producer other than herself for this album, and that person is ECM head Manfred Eicher. Trios is the name, though there’s only this one trio performing the songs, all five numbers which Bley had written and recorded on prior albums. Not a revolutionary release, but a great album, one of those bringing fame to the ECM catalog.Carla Bley returns to her long running drum-less threesome featuring electric bassist Steve Swallow and tenor saxman Andy Sheppard with an album by this ensemble next week. Bop and swing roots are both used as an excellent basis for injecting more life into "Trios", making it different from lifeless swing-less ECM recordings. Recorded in one of the "southern" ECM studios in Swiss Lugano, this album's sound is warm and opposite to the classic ECM "cool & clear northern sound" as is usual for Oslo studio recordings. The musical material is extremely strong here, and a slightly melancholic atmosphere is tastefully spiced with humor and touches of Latin and French elegance. After all these decades, Carla still sounds more inventive than nostalgic, even on popular compositions. These are well-known songs we have heard in big band arrangements (often in more than just one version), but they sound different here, much more chamber in quality and very "European" as played by a drummer-less trio. ![]() "Trios", Carla Bley's first album for ECM (for decades, her previous releases were all self-produced with ECM as the distributor only) is an elegant collection of her classic compositions recorded in trio format (with her regular collaborators bassist Steve Swallow and British reedist Andy Sheppard).
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