Label: JazzSick Records, 2021
Personnel - Christian Pabst: piano, Rhodes; André Nendza: acoustic and electric bass; Erik Kooger: drums.
Formerly based in the Netherlands and now living in Italy, the German pianist/composer Christian Pabst is seen here at the helm of a classic piano trio featuring fellow countryman bassist André Nendza and Dutch drummer Erik Kooger. The title of his fourth album as a leader, Balbec, was drawn from his own imagination, alluding to a fictional city especially envisioned to give wings to unostentatious sonic depictions and explorations. Topics such as the arts, traveling and everyday life feed his fount of inspiration.
The lead-off track, “Revelation”, has a singing bass spreading melody around over a well-leveled harmonic pavement that reveals graceful pop piano hooks suggestive of Bruce Hornsby, in addition to a lustrous jazz reminiscent of Brad Mehldau. There are passages imbued with pure rhythmic groove and the piano improvisation flows with post-bop ease, carrying some pleasant outside playing and predictably compliant figures.
The iterative dry flux of Kooger’s snare drum reinforces the cyclic harmonic pattern of “Snake”. The trio creates a general relaxing vibe and achieves a nearly ethereal feel in their maneuvers, with Nendza’s pumping electric bass instilling the extra energy. The strong melody plays an important emotional role here, as well as on “Snow”, a dramatic piece predominantly played in five, and equally on “Storm”, which, despite of what the title may suggest, leans more on the contemplative, balladesque side of things for most of its duration.
Waltzing with spirit at a medium-fast tempo, “Golden” features a piano statement that, starting as a monologue, soon regains the company of bass and drums to embark on a rhythmic friskiness that ends with a supple, unaccompanied bass ride.
The trio wades into the polyrhythmic context of the title cut, embracing a gleaning texture that incorporates the amiable nature of Brazilian music and the brittleness of a smooth jazz that swings.
More of an ear-pleasing architect that actually a stirrer, Pabst brings a luminous quality into compositions that find his trio in a composed yet responsive mode.
Grade B
Favorite Tracks:
02 - Snake ► 03 - Balbec ► 04 - Snow