Karayorgis-McBride-Gray Trio (Pools)

CD info:

Pools brings together three long-time musical collaborators into a new trio. Karayorgis has worked in other piano trios with McBride (with Randy Peterson and Curt Newton) and Gray (with Jef Charland) before, but here they play off of an expanded conception of restrained intensity and three-way dialogue that adds a new chapter to this thread. The three have forged a strong musical bond over the years by playing together in many different formations and are currently playing frequently as the rhythm section of the quintet Cutout (along with trombonist Jeb Bishop and saxophonist Jorrit Dijkstra). For this set, made in July 2018 during an informal house recording session, they get a chance to stretch out as a trio, playing mostly original pieces by Karayorgis along with a free improvisation and a blues.

Review excerpt:

I will admit I prefer Karayorgis in this context a bit more, if only because I love his elegantly sprawling, slow-moving themes–even the all-improvised “Last One” clings to some pretty intangible shapes, driven by an inexorable sense of forward motion. On a deliciously fragile tune such as “Entanglement” a gently distended melody is draped over an elastic groove that’s in perpetual flux, with changing rhythmic accents, spasms of bass notes, and sudden jacked-up swing patterns; it gives the pianist a vast canvas to splatter sound, including hushed, glassy constellations and frenetic, left-handed runs that suggest early Cecil Taylor. On “allbyitself” the pianist recalls Paul Bley’s penchant for spreading notes over a crawling pace–a jagged rhythmic skeleton carved out by McBride and Gray–with painterly grace and concision, mixing things up well-placed chord sequences. Below you can check out the opening piece, the vaguely Monk-ish “Roil.”

Peter Margasak January 30, 2019