UK-based Leo Records has survived the COVID lockdown, and is making up for lost time with four new releases. Freedom reigns once again!
The Clarinet Trio has Jurgen Kupke on soprano stick, Michael Thieke on stick and alto clarinet while Gebhard Ullmann sticks to the bass clarinet on this collection of reed rapture. Each grenadilla man gets a solo space, with Kupke particularly agonizing on “Solo #3” and Ullmann giving the pads a workout on ‘Solo #2”. The intriguing thing about the album is 
that the three show amazing and lyrical harmonies on pieces like “Virtue” and the easy swinging “Cleopatra”, while they go just as easily into wild screeches and wails on tunes such as “Golem” and “Don’t Run” while a perfect mix takes place on “Der Blues is der Konig”. A walk in thick reeds.
Pianist Simon Nabatov brings together Phil Minton/voc, Matthias Schubert/ts, Wolter Wirbos/tb and Jim Black/dr-elec for a mix of talking juxtaposed with Spike Jones-ish instrumentals. Gurgling with Listerine teams with eerie tones on “Watchman” while ramblings about being “interested in nonsense” is revealed on “Nonsense”. Stories are told throughout as on the bohemian “7 or 8” while mechanical pulses are supported by askance operatic voice on “Pursuing”. Theatre of the absurd set to music?
Steve Piccolo also brings voice along with his bass to team up with vibe man Sergio Armaroli and Elliott Sharp, playing guitar, soprano sax, computer and electronics. There seem to be two divergent directions in this album. On the one hand, you have gorgeously clever interpretations of standards such as a fragrantly loop and voice melding on “Dearly Beloved”, and hiply vibed “Beautiful” as well as a gracefully nuanced “Dearly Beloved”. On the other side of the tracks, guitars go awry on “In The Right”, there is tensile agitation with talking voices on “Slummin” and hints of Frank Zappa without pop sensibilities on the weird and wonderful “New Bones”. Where’s the kitchen sink?
Frencesco Cusa/dr, Brian Groder/tp, Riccardo/b and Tonino Miano/p get highly intuitive on seven elliptical originals. Groder’s horn is a descendent of Don Cherry, agonizing softly around Grosso and Cusa on “Human Fingers” and splattering out the blues on the erratic “Skittles Heavy”. Miano’s piano is spacious and spacey over Grosso’s plodding lines on “Neon Eyes” and reflective for the trio teamed “Twenty Fingers in a Pond”, as Cusa’s cymbals caress the pulse under Groder’s bright brass on “Heart Kit”. No change of the 21st Century.