I’m willing to bet if you created a pie chart of the type of albums released by ECM records, the piano/bass/drum trio would take the largest piece. Here are two recent ones that are vintage in sound and approach.
Gary Peacock uses his acoustic bass with the deft Marc Copland/p and versatile Joey Baron/dr on this collection of re-interpretations of older material, covers and new tunes. Copland’s touch is crystalline and fragile as the leader delivers a rich melody on “Gaia” while Bill Evans-like chords are used by the pianist as a starting point while Baron shifts from brushes to cymbals and Peacock delivers a vibrant lyricism to “Gloria’s Steps.” The team sounds deep and penetrating as notes and rhythms fall like raindrops on “Vignette” while bass and piano take turns at prismatic lights on “Moor.” Rich and textured.
Pianist Giovanni Guidi’s approach with Thomas Morgan/b and Joao Lobo/dr is a bit more straightforward, but possibly more romantic in the process, as he demonstrates on the yearning “Trilly” and reflective “Game of Silence” which allows Morgan to brood underneath Guidi’s tender aria. They lilt and shuffle together in dance floor passion with a sashaying take of “Quizas, Quizas, Quizas” and go coy on a regretful emotive take of “I’m Through With Love” in which Lobo dances like sparkles around Guidi’s remorseful declaration. Rich and textured.
ECM Records