Like the best of independent labels, Neuma Records has created a catalogue with a definable sound, that of 21st Century ideas of sophistication and experimentation, blurring the lines between modern jazz and classical. Here are three releases displaying how today’s trios are not like your father’s trios.
Consisting of Petros Bouras/p, Babis Karasavvidis/vi and Marina Kolovou/cel, The Galan Trio puts together a double disc release of material from today’s composers. The first disc, titled Midwest, have the threesome melding Bartok-like bowed strings on “Mirror/Kathreptis” to dark pizzicato’d dashes on “Variant”. Playful Satie-esque piano pulses veer around the strings on “Moto” with shadows casted long on “Elusive”.
Disc two, South Central” has some prancing piano and Eastern European harmonies for Larry Alan Smith’s “Piano Trio No. 3” , with some edgy harmonics and piano ripples for Richard Lavenda’s two part “Trio”. Warm tones and pastoral fragrances glisten with hints of Vaughan Williams during “Three Sketches on the Artwork of Tom Les” with some jazzy prancing on the festive “Persian Dances”. A kaleidoscope of worldly colors.
Douglas R. Ewart plays a variety of woodwinds along with the didgeridoo, some percussion and bringing in some voice and texts along with Christian Asplund on viola/piano and Steven Ricks adding trombone and electronics on this wide ranging trio. Ricks’ trombone is used at times as a sonic frame work, surrounding Ewart’s flute on the African tribal “The Struggle to Receive The Breath”. There’s a combining of rustling and plucked strings on the restless ”Upperstanding Everpresence and a dash of Monk in a festive mood as Ricks bounces around piano and percussion on “Water Song”. Earth tones from the didgeridoo are clarion clear for “Call to Attention” with things closing out with electronic wallpaper supporting chasing piano keys for the scrambling “The Determination to be Free”. A musical juxtaposition of civilizations that brings together sonic continents.
Violinist Hanna Hurwitz teams with cellist Colin Stokes and pianist Daniel Pesca for interpretations of that rarity of modern classical works that are not cacophonic. Florence Price’s “Fantasie No. 1 For Violin and Piano” is a scintillatingly gorgeous collection of East European ideas, while the three part “Piano Trio” by Rebecca Clarke includes Chopinesque piano, delicate parlored strings and dramatic exhortations. Pesca is impressionistic on the “Largo” and ruminating deeply on the “Adagio” of Carlos Chavez’s “Sonata for Violin and Piano” while Hurwitz is cleverly prismatic on the elliptical “Theme et Variations pour Violon et Piano”. Hurwitz and Pesca veer around like dance partners before embracing on the two part “Duo No. 1 for Violin and Cello, H 157”. Impressive sounds that keep modern ears alert without offending a heart for the tradition.