JIM BLACK TRIO - Reckon
Intakt: CD334
Jim Black: drums; Elias Stemeseder: piano; Thomas Morgan: bass
Recorded January 15th and 16th 2019 by Michael Brandli at Hardstudios, Winterthur, Switzerland
Jim Black is easily one of contemporary music’s most melodic drummers. Live he plays a small kit but wrings every conceivable sound out of each part, and this is exactly what is happening on this set. For this approach to drumming to succeed, you need musicians who don’t need the drum to mark time. In this trio, Stemeseder and Morgan are perfectly content to be rhythmic instruments and also to share the construction of melody with Black. It is in this spirit of playing and the shared vision of music-making which is more about inhabiting the textures of rhythms rather than simply knocking out the tune, that the trio excel. But a piano trio that plays in this manner requires a unique piano player - one is able to find gaps in the busy rhythms but also content to create space where that might expect other pianists to rush into. And also, given Black's enthusiasm for finding new sounds to make with the drumkit, a penchant for 'prepared piano' (as on 'Next Razor World', track 7, or 'This one and this too', track 11). What this misses, of course, is the pivotal role that Morgan plays with his unassuming interventions on bass that are always precise and always precisely what is required.
Each piece is credited to all three musicians and these have the spontaneity of improvisation (perhaps hinted at by the cryptic titles but also a tremendous tightness to their structure. The way the trio worked alternated free work-outs (illustrated by ‘Next Razor World, track 7) with sessions focussing on chord progressions and rhythmic patterns. Several of the tunes work from motifs that have the immediacy and simplicity of pop songs (like in ‘Spooty and Snofer’, track 4, but rip these apart through Stemeseder’s bubbling piano and Black’s explosive drumming. Across each piece Morgan provides a steady pulse, but even he can be relied on to bust a move or two and create unexpected runs and patterns, as in, say, ‘Tighter Whined’ (track 2) or tunes of his own, as in the opening solo to ‘Very Query’ (track 5).
Reviewed by Chris Baber
Intakt: CD334
Jim Black: drums; Elias Stemeseder: piano; Thomas Morgan: bass
Recorded January 15th and 16th 2019 by Michael Brandli at Hardstudios, Winterthur, Switzerland
Jim Black is easily one of contemporary music’s most melodic drummers. Live he plays a small kit but wrings every conceivable sound out of each part, and this is exactly what is happening on this set. For this approach to drumming to succeed, you need musicians who don’t need the drum to mark time. In this trio, Stemeseder and Morgan are perfectly content to be rhythmic instruments and also to share the construction of melody with Black. It is in this spirit of playing and the shared vision of music-making which is more about inhabiting the textures of rhythms rather than simply knocking out the tune, that the trio excel. But a piano trio that plays in this manner requires a unique piano player - one is able to find gaps in the busy rhythms but also content to create space where that might expect other pianists to rush into. And also, given Black's enthusiasm for finding new sounds to make with the drumkit, a penchant for 'prepared piano' (as on 'Next Razor World', track 7, or 'This one and this too', track 11). What this misses, of course, is the pivotal role that Morgan plays with his unassuming interventions on bass that are always precise and always precisely what is required.
Each piece is credited to all three musicians and these have the spontaneity of improvisation (perhaps hinted at by the cryptic titles but also a tremendous tightness to their structure. The way the trio worked alternated free work-outs (illustrated by ‘Next Razor World, track 7) with sessions focussing on chord progressions and rhythmic patterns. Several of the tunes work from motifs that have the immediacy and simplicity of pop songs (like in ‘Spooty and Snofer’, track 4, but rip these apart through Stemeseder’s bubbling piano and Black’s explosive drumming. Across each piece Morgan provides a steady pulse, but even he can be relied on to bust a move or two and create unexpected runs and patterns, as in, say, ‘Tighter Whined’ (track 2) or tunes of his own, as in the opening solo to ‘Very Query’ (track 5).
Reviewed by Chris Baber
