NABATOV/DRESSER/MAHNIG TRIO - Equal Poise
(Leo Records CD LR 745)
Simon Nabatov, piano; Mark Dresser, double bass; Dominik Mahnig, drums
Recorded live at The Loft, Cologne, May 31st, 2014
This album demonstrates how Nabatov and Dresser in unison can be so masterfully inventive at extemporaneous composition, although, I think, they have not previously played together in a settled group. Drummer Mahnig has collaborated beforehand with Nabatov and this is fairly obvious from the opening track, ‘Full Circles’, in which he exhibits considerable self-assurance and poise.
Each musician displays both ability and willingness to assiduously heed his partners and their work and it is fascinating to hear the drums responding to the variety of inputs from piano and bass with an inspiring battery of tapping and drumming originals. In turn, piano and bass answer back with spontaneous approaches to the percussive elements of their instruments.
The trio has an original sound, a long way from the conventional yet with audible roots, though delivered with freedom of interpretation. The trio and their album offer a phantasmagoria of dispositions and tempers that veer between instants of calculated dissonances, animated variations, potency, talent, caring trade-offs and passageways of melodious exquisiteness. There aren’t too many trios around that sound this good.
Reviewed by Ken Cheetham
(Leo Records CD LR 745)
Simon Nabatov, piano; Mark Dresser, double bass; Dominik Mahnig, drums
Recorded live at The Loft, Cologne, May 31st, 2014
This album demonstrates how Nabatov and Dresser in unison can be so masterfully inventive at extemporaneous composition, although, I think, they have not previously played together in a settled group. Drummer Mahnig has collaborated beforehand with Nabatov and this is fairly obvious from the opening track, ‘Full Circles’, in which he exhibits considerable self-assurance and poise.
Each musician displays both ability and willingness to assiduously heed his partners and their work and it is fascinating to hear the drums responding to the variety of inputs from piano and bass with an inspiring battery of tapping and drumming originals. In turn, piano and bass answer back with spontaneous approaches to the percussive elements of their instruments.
The trio has an original sound, a long way from the conventional yet with audible roots, though delivered with freedom of interpretation. The trio and their album offer a phantasmagoria of dispositions and tempers that veer between instants of calculated dissonances, animated variations, potency, talent, caring trade-offs and passageways of melodious exquisiteness. There aren’t too many trios around that sound this good.
Reviewed by Ken Cheetham