Shawn Lovato: Biotic
The chordless tenor trio is one of the most exciting and dangerous formats in jazz. For some it represents the ultimate technical challenge, while for others its harmonic and rhythmic freedoms are a gateway to more expressionistic terrain. Weaving a considered path between what might be described as the Rollins and Ayler paradigms is this exciting trio from New York-based bassist and composer Shawn Lovato. Firmly rooted in the jazz tradition while remaining open to external influences, if not exactly rewriting the rulebook he certainly bends it very effectively to his ends.
As with 2017’s Cycles Of Animation (Skirl Records) Lovato once again taps into the attitude and energies of metal, punk and hip-hop. Yet there’s also a line connecting Biotic to 2022’s chamber-suite Microcosms (ears&eyes Records), revealing a parallel interest in the textures and tonalities of the 20th-century avant-garde. Spearheading the trio is the muscular yet lyrical saxophone of Ingrid Laubrock, a ubiquitous presence in the city’s avant-garde who also works with Lovato in her group Grammy Season. Up-and-coming drummer Henry Mermer meanwhile has studied with Andrew Cyrille and Reggie Workman, and although he’s less well established, his intelligent and often understated contributions suggest a bright future.
The record explodes into life with the exuberant high-jinks of Spling, the theme’s violent pointillistic strokes and jerky sideways motions inviting all three musicians to take a percussive approach. The relatively straight-ahead Frequent Flyer showcases Laubrock’s post-bop chops to maximal advantage, a marked contrast to the short but visceral free-improvisation One Step From Anything Easy, which finds her wraith-like tenor locked in a nerve-jangling duet with Lovato’s razor-sharp arco. She negotiates a constantly shifting grid of angular lines and interlocking rhythmic cells on the epic Patience And Hydration. The chamberish cadences of Parachute Bloom have a near mathematical precision, and admirer’s of Dave Holland’s seminal 70s collaborations with Sam Rivers will find much to enjoy in both the confident free-bop swagger of Dirt Doesn’t Burn and the painfully raw balladry of Inexorable.
Discography
Spling; Frequent Flyer; One Step From Anything Easy; Patience And Hydration; Inexorable; Dirt Doesn’t Burn; Parachute Bloom (42.23)
Lovato (b) with Ingrid Laubrock (ts); Henry Mermer (d). Mt. Vernon, NY, November 2024.
Endectomorph Music EMM-40
Denman Maroney: Umwelt
The now 76-year old pianist, composer, improviser and theorist Denman Maroney has been continuously expanding the possibilities of jazz and new music ever since his breakthrough in the late 90s. Taking the prepared piano to hitherto unimagined places with his glistening hyper-piano, Maroney has also developed a system of temporal harmony that allows him to compose and improvise in several tempos at once. Echoes of Ellington, Nancarrow, Monk, Coleman, Stockhausen and Cage freely collide and recombine, and his forward-thinking music invariably lands at the sweet spot between serious composition and radical improvisation.
He relocated from New York to the south of France in 2020 and Umwelt is the third release from his versatile new European-based quintet. In a small but significant change of personnel since 2024’s Henry Miller inspired The Air-Conditioned Nightmare, also released by Neuma, vocalist Emilie Lesbros is replaced by saxophonist Guillaume Orti, the twin-horn frontline suggesting Cecil Taylor’s early ensembles with Steve Lacy and Archie Shepp. It’s to Neuma’s great credit that the label continues to champion Maroney’s very singular music, something which I’m sure has a great deal to do with British-born composer and producer Philip Blackburn, who currently manages the programming.
The music was recorded in June of last year at a favourite haunt of many current ECM artists, and although Maroney’s hyper-piano is heard only during the bustling post-bop of opener Andale, his temporal harmonies abound at every turn. Iteratio, Isotrope and the deeply reflective Long Odds are entirely through composed, the first carrying traces of Monk’s Evidence. Fincker’s full-throated tenor exchanges with Orti on Two Up, One Down provide some of the album’s most heated moments, while the spare All Blues style horn voicings of the gently loping title track are simply exquisite. Sea Set Wheat, recorded as a hyper-piano piece on 2020’s Martingale, is another highlight, this version tapping into early free-jazz as its structures dramatically disintegrate before the eyes. All told, Umwelt is an outstanding collection, and it would make a near-perfect introduction to Maroney’s sound world for any curious newcomer.
Discography
Andale/Simplexity; Iteratio; Two Up, One Down; Isotrope; Lilt; Sea Set Wheat; Long Odds; Umwelt; Rolling Evermore (61.53)
Maroney (p) with Robin Fincker (ts, cl); Guillaume Orti (as, ss); Scott Walton (b); Samuel Silvant (d). Studio La Buissone, Pernes les Fontaines, France, 19-20 June 2025.
Neuma Records 243
Olle Lannér Risenfors Quartet: You Never Quite Know What You Will Get
The influence of Keith Jarrett’s Scandinavian quartet of the 70s is well documented, but perhaps counter-intuitively this young Stockholm-based quartet takes its cues from the pianist’s contemporaneous US quartet. Very much at the beginning of his career, bassist and composer Olle Lannér Risenfors has been the recipient of a national scholarship from the Royal Swedish Academy of Music and a Swedish Arts Grants Committee’s working grant. He recently recorded with Per “Texas” Johansson and FLEN, appeared on an album by German saxophonist Fabian Deschler’s Grounding, and a busy pipeline of 2026 releases includes sets with vocalist Selma Pinton and a pan-Scandinavian piano trio with Oscar Ployart and Magnus Austad.
This quartet was formed during Lannér’s studies in the capital with the express intention of sharpening the players’ skills for close listening and collective interplay. The transition from rehearsal room to performance space seems to have come naturally, a close rapport being evident throughout. Recorded before what sounds like a small but appreciative audience at Stockholm’s Rönnells Antikvariat, Lannér’s album notes describe how the only thing decided in advance was the set-list. While it would be easy to imagine this same material played differently on another night, each piece nevertheless sounds whole and definitive.
Dikotomi begins with Zeeland’s unaccompanied tenor, drawing the listener in and cueing up a gently flowing solo from Stener before he returns with a rather more fractured closing statement. Do Not Listen is even more bruising, Lannér and Zeeland exchanging blows like Redman and Haden as the quartet runs hot without ever fully overheating. Sista Gången is a finely burnished ballad and one of the set’s most melodically appealing pieces, Regrowing bears the hallmarks of an heroic all-American anthem, while the darkly enigmatic Allt Hör Ihop is a taut slow-burner with a curiously unresolved surface tension. Closing with a final nod to Jarrett’s great US quartet, Lannér’s wry and somewhat self-deprecating title knowingly undersells the achievements of an extremely talented young group.
Discography
Dikotomi; Do Not Listen; Nils Agnas Drum Break; Sista Gången; Regrowing; Allt Hör Ihop; You Never Quite Know What You Will Get, So You Might As Well Not Expect Anything (38.08)
Lannér Risenfors (b) with Marius Zeeberg (ts); David Stener (p); Nils Agnas (d). Rönnells Antikvariat, Stockholm, 2024.
Varva Records & Music VRAM23
