Latest releases reviewed

MARCIN WASILEWSKI/SLAWOMIR KURKIEWICZ/MICHAL MISKIEWICZ Trio ECM *****

This is the brilliant piano-bass-drums trio of Tomasz Stanko's remarkable quartet releases, Soul of Things and Suspended Night, now making their ECM debut in their own right. Together since 1993, they have grown as a trio to the point where their collective ruminations have an organic quality, a coiled-spring intensity, whether drawing out the subtly understated beauty of a ballad, gradually turning up the tension on faster pieces, or simply improvising freely and spontaneously. They do all of this here, incorporating pieces by Björk, Polish composer Karol Szymanowski, Stanko, Wayne Shorter and Wasiliewski into a programme of lyric beauty in which, breathing as one, they handle time, line and texture with great fluidity and an almost total absence of superfluous gesture. In the process they have produced a series of gorgeous miniatures of a melodic and melancholy beauty. www.musicconnection.org.uk

Ray Comiskey

SCOTT DUBOIS Monsoon Soul Note ****

DuBois is a gifted young guitarist/ composer leading a quintet of like-minded contemporaries - Loren Stillman (soprano and alto), Jason Rigby (soprano and tenor), Thomas Morgan (bass) and Mark Ferber (drums) - on this engrossing, adventurous and original CD. The music, much of which uses vamps and odd metres, has an Indian feel, while the guitarist's pieces possess a savoury linear distinction of their own. Saxophonist Dave Liebman replaces Rigby on four tracks, and it's indicative of the quality of the others, especially Stillman and DuBois, that they stand the comparison so well, reconciling freedom with order and structure with surprise. And there's a total sense of engagement about their work that makes these performances so compelling.

[ www.harmoniamundi.comOpens in new window ]

Ray Comiskey

AVISHAI COHEN At Home Razdaz ***

Bassist and composer Cohen's trio, with Mark Giuliana (drums) and Sam Bar-sheshet (piano/organ/fender rhodes/melodica) received a standing ovation in Cork last year for their neat, well-tailored work. Doubtless their fans will love their latest release, on which the trio is augmented on several tracks by saxophone, flute and flugelhorn, all little known, decent players. To these ears, however, it's still lightweight, albeit attractive music, heavily dependent on repetitive themes and rhythmic elements. The performances, which have echoes of Cohen's Jewish background, generally have a predetermined feel to them despite the very evident skill with which they're executed. Perhaps it's just me - but then, one man's viand is another man's poisson, or something. www.musicconnection.org.uk

Ray Comiskey