Label: Jazzdoor, 2022

Personnel - Matthieu Mazué: piano; Xaver Rüegg: double bass; Michael Cina: drums.

We Stay Still is Mathieu Mazué Trio’s intriguing follow up to Cortex (Unit Records, 2021). The album, made up entirely of original compositions and presented with as much discipline as freedom, passes the idea of ‘through-composed’ momentum.

“White Fields” is launched with demonstrative, poignant piano playing; shivering in the way Mazué employs intervals and surfaces. The bassist Xaver Rüegg, whose notes notably lock in with the drummer Michael Cina’s drive, delivers a sophisticated if enigmatic solo, benefitting from apt piano support in the upper registers. Roughly felt as a haunting dirge, this piece bears some similar qualities as “Au Plus Profond Des Steppes”, where we find some volatility in the footprint and accuracy in the rhythmic accents; the enigmatic tones turning it picturesque and slightly labyrinthine in the side paths.

The trio gives it all on “Supply Chains”, whose rhythmic ferociousness will probably make your head and feet move back and forth. It’s like if punk rock had met electronic music with a marvelously inventive touch. The confident alliance between the bassist and the drummer paves the way, with the two-hand dexterity of Mazué’s incursions fanning out across the surface. “Knocks” can also be frenetic, vigorous and complex, but alternates moods via more meditative atmospheres.

Tension-filled blocks are constituent of “Dislocation”, revealing a modern kind of swing with breaks and abrupt runs, whereas “Shells” denotes a more conventional swinging flow that empowers Rüegg and Cina to trade fours with a conversant disposition.

Cerebral but with a loose fluidity, “Standing Black Shape” is the longest track of the record, lasting more than 12 minutes. Despite the systemic approach, the journey is eventful, ending up in a motivic concentration of sound.

Mazué’s modernist trio has a lot to give to contemporary jazz, unwrapping inspirations and talking idioms of their own creation.

Favorite Tracks:
02 - Au Plus Profond Des Steppes ► 03 - Supply Chains ► 05 - Dislocation

Label: Unit Records, 2021

Personnel - Matthieu Mazué: piano; Xaver Rüegg: double bass; Michael Cina: drums.

After playing a few gigs in France, Switzerland and Germany in 2020, the French pianist and composer Matthieu Mazué opted to release a 9-track album - titled Cortex - in the company of his two competent Swiss backers, Xaver Rüegg and Michael Cina on bass and drums, respectively.

The trio opens with the title track, implementing the theme statement with intervallic awe and triggering an arresting motion imbued with accentuation that travels your body with energy. An idea in the form of pedal point interrupts the flux and welcomes clearer bass expressions. And then the piece regains its throbbing heart with rich piano playing, whose attributes include shades of Andrew Hill and Horace Tapscott.

On “Cyborg”, the trio shows its fondness for rhythmic complexity, alluding to the crescent role of machines in our society. The piece starts with a tangling web weaved between bass and drums, and upon which free single-note piano lines are laid down. As the time advances, Mazué instills harmonic solidification, denoting an industrious vibe that often brings Kris Davis’ ostentation pianism to mind.

“Black Cloud” is a haunting ballad sustained by whispering brushes and sparse piano. The wide space created here has a noir-ish Paul Bley/Paul Motian elocution, something we hear once again on “Extended Sharpness”, which, giving a strong impression of intangibility at first, gains palpable traction with time. There’s an alternate take of this piece that brings a pop/rock pulse into play.

Both energetically dispensed, “Forming C” and “Data Are About to Collapse” are in connection with boisterous sounds. The former, propelled by a fine bass groove and nuanced pedals, is reinforced in the lower register by the pianist, who, at some point, causes a polyrhythmic, avant-edged, train-like motion to occur. The latter piece, probably partly inspired by spasmodic electronica and machine language, comes shrouded in an opaque sonic veil before settling in a lurching swing that is held down with vigor until the final theme.

Mazué manages to create a narrative direction while alternating between brisk dynamics and pure reflections. Several interesting moments are drawn from this trio effort.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - Cortex ► 02 - Cyborg ► 04- Forming C