Gordon Grdina’s Nomad Trio: Ash
This is the third album by the Nomad Trio. I don’t know if the personnel has been the same for all albums, but the evidence here suggests a group that’s thoroughly bedded in and at a point where mutual understanding ensures a unity of vision which hasn’t coalesced into blithe familiarity. The resulting music retains an edge outside of the post-bop mainstream, while Grdina’s compositions (of which the whole album is composed) blur the line between notes written and spontaneous creation to such a degree that any abrupt changes in intensity and dynamics seem wholly uncontrived.
Simultanism documents the group putting out a variation on the theme of fusion which diametrically opposes the smooth. It smacks of stretching a point to suggest that Grdina’s coming out of a continuum taking in both Sonny Sharrock and Joe Morris in soloistic terms, but it’s a tribute to his work that other comparisons spring even less easily to mind, while the range of mood incorporated in this piece might serve as a nod to prog rock at its most progressive, i.e., not in thrall to form and empty virtuosity.
Grdina’s one of those musicians who appreciates that playing different instruments can broaden a player’s grounding if they take an instrument’s inherent characteristics into account. Thus his oud work on Ejdeha opens up a different world and Mitchell and Black respond accordingly. The latter’s broken back-beat doesn’t so much ground the music as it provides an anchoring point as the intuitive processes kick in.
The leader’s oud takes us further out on Huzam, where flavours outside of the jazz tradition are to the fore and the intertwining of oud and piano lines, together with a kind of underlying restlessness, makes for music worthy of repeated close listening.
Discography
Polysemic; Simultanism; Huzam; Succinct Coalescence; Ejdeha; Ash (49.36)
Grdina (g, oud); Matt Mitchell (p); Jim Black (d). Eastside Sound, New York City. No dates.
Attaboy Girl Records ABG-13
Mark Lockheart, Huw V. Williams & Jay Davis: Shapeshifter
We’re now well past the point where the interpretation of standards, as defined largely by the Great American Songbook, can be held up as a benchmark for any jazz musician’s credibility. But we seem now to live in a world where no comparable test has emerged to replace it. This is not to question the abilities of the musicians discussed here – far from it – but to highlight how the matter of compositional longevity, as defined by the number of times a song is recorded and released, seems to have been eclipsed by compositions written with a particular group in mind.
This programme of group-generated compositions is measured here, animated there, and while it might be left of centre in terms of the above paragraph, it falls well within the parameters of reeds, bass and drums trios of the post-bop persuasion. Lockheart’s The Good Place has a level of character that is only partly revealed; a sense of unease is sadly curtailed after just over two minutes. Williams’s Rule Of Three uses overdubs – in common with that Lockheart piece – and is all the better for it. To some degree it diminishes the feeling I get that the group’s playing more or less exclusively for itself.
Lockheart’s Strawberry Moon kind of brings to a head the balance between matters in the moment and matters prerecorded. The overdubbing again has the effect of taking the music to a less populated place, and in this instance the piece evolves in a manner suggestive of attention to form.
Discography
Shapeshifter; Come On Over; A Good Place; Milking The Stone; Rule Of Three; Mustering; Strawberry Moon; Glow; Leeds Place; 14-2-25; Tangs (46.56)
Lockheart (s, bcl); Williams (b); Davis (d). Lightship Studios, London, April 2025.
Subtone Records ST803
Steve Wilson: Enduring Sonance
Given we’re well past the hard-bop saturation point it takes something special to engage my ear and command the attention. The special somethings that this set’s shot through with are love and an abiding commitment to the cause. Having been on the scene for decades Wilson’s musicianship is without question, and it’s clear here that he’s reached a point in life where the expression comes naturally. Given that he’s appeared on nigh on 200 recordings we should, of course, consider these qualities as given, but his artistry is to the fore on Gino Vanelli’s The Surest Things Can Change, where he brings (on alto) a mixture of tenderness and sass to bear. It’s a song which, given the strength of this reading, ought to figure more highly than I suspect it does in that apparently ever lengthening list of songs worthy of jazz interpretation.
Michel Legrand supplied the music (as the setting for Alan and Marilyn Bergman’s lyric) for Pieces Of A Dream and the nuanced reading it receives here adds strength to my contention that Legrand wrote uncommonly well for jazz musicians . Renee Rosnes, who, given her long musical association with Wilson qualifies as 50% of an old pals act, highlights the details, while Wilson justifiably relies on depth of expression to carry the day. Helen’s Song highlights how Rosnes and Joe Locke work cooperatively in terms of framing and accompanying a soloist, and the overall performance shows how, despite the points raised above, hard bop can still be substantial and essentially timeless.
Discography
Quiet Girl; Helen’s Song; Pieces Of Dreams; How Long?; A Volta; The Eyes Of Love; The Surest Things Can Change; Francisco (43.29)
Wilson (as, ss, f); Renee Rosnes (p, elp); Joe Locke (vib); Jay Anderson (b); Kendrick Scott (d). With Kevin Newton (frn) on Quiet Girl and Francisco only. Power Station, Studio A, New York City, 9 & 10, September 2025.
Smoke Sessions Records SSR 2061
