Joe Lovano Trio Tapestry - Our Daily Bread

May 4, 2023

Label: ECM Records, 2023

Personnel - Joe Lovano: tenor saxophone, tarogato, gongs; Marilyn Crispell: piano; Carmen Castaldi: drums, gong, temple bells.

Our Daily Bread is the third chapter in Trio Tapestry’s discography. Led by the extraordinary saxophonist Joe Lovano, who remains the sole composer for this spiritual musical endeavor, the trio is completed by the resourceful pianist Marilyn Crispell and the enigmatic drummer Carmen Castaldi. They give the best expression to eight new selections that advocate the same freedom and abandonment of those presented in former recordings.

“All Twelve” evolves in a 12-tone context with perspicuity in the interplay. I feel it as a dawning peace, whose rubato manner enhances the celestial latitude that defines Lovano’s originals. That said, you can still find piano and saxophone lines in tandem near completion. The following track, “Grace Notes” is an example of spiritual elevation and force in the style of Coltrane. There’s no bass in this project but Crispell provides a hypnotic low-pitched rumination with her left hand, ideal for Lovano’s blistering work out on tarogato. The instrument’s special tone and the improviser’s prayerful intonations make this magnificent modal burner the most expansive on the album. It ends as it started, with Castaldi offering gentle drumming.

“Le Petit Opportun” is a beautiful ballad delivered as a sax-piano duet. It is harmonically palpable and melodically compelling, just like the gracious title track, where intimate lyricism appears in every little touch by the threesome.

If the trio takes the title “The Power of Three” literally by also providing triplets while exploring within a circumspect mood in tempo rubato, then “Crystal Ball” passes a pastoral air loosened up by free and airy drumming. There’s a solo saxophone tribute to the late bassist Charlie Haden, with whom Lovano played in the last phase of his Liberation Music Orchestra and in Paul Motian’s On Broadway standards project.

Although not as strong as in their two previous outings, Trio Tapestry’s jazz spirituality is crafted with nice details.

Favorite Tracks:
02 - Grace Notes ► 04 - Our Daily Bread ► 07 - Rhythm Spirit

Joe Lovano's Trio Tapestry - Garden of Expression

January 26, 2021

Label: ECM Records, 2021

Personnel - Joe Lovano: tenor and soprano saxophones, tarogato; Marilyn Crispell: piano; Carmen Castaldi: drums.

In the second installment of the Trio Tapestry, Garden of Expression, the leading saxophonist Joe Lovano wields his horn with tact, engraving profound melodies on the understructures created by his sterling associates, the pianist Marilyn Crispell and the drummer Carmen Castaldi. The album comprises eight Lovano compositions, most of them written on the road, which whir with splendorous lyricism and spirituality.

Dipped in reflection, “Chapel Song” joins these shimmering tenor melodies with the dreamy quality of Crispell’s piano work and the selective drum chops of Castaldi. This number was the product of Lovano’s listening to an organ playing in a Viennese church. A quiet illumination comes from the trio’s musical affinity and that warm feel is seamlessly passed to “Night Creatures”, a meditative exercise in which Lovano’s expressive playing becomes affectingly emotional. He’s well supported by cymbal legato and other percussive subtleties as well as deep silences. This serene, free-flowing nature often recalls the work of drummer Paul Motian.

If “The Sacred Way” comes up with a new way of playing modal jazz, more delicate and laid-back than ever, then the title track, “Garden of Expression”, draws harmonic mystery from every passage. Melodically poignant at first, this piece evolves into brisk weavings of melodic saxophone that immediately made me think of Charles Lloyd. The focused piano of Crispell is overshadowed by Castaldi’s effusive drumming here, while Lovano plays gongs in the last section. The trio’s deep musicality is on full display.

Under the drummer's steady tapestry, “Dream On That” kicks in with a lovely piano declaration to which the saxophone responds assertively. The convergence of the two instruments ultimately occurs, and a finely articulated theme, mixing blithe post-bop and Monk angularity, is delivered with unbending belief.

The album closes with “Zen Like”, a soaring piece where the trio combines gongs and cymbals, plucked piano strings and low pedals, and adds horn laments for the resulting chemistry.

The open music of Trio Tapestry casts a mesmerizing spell, shining with colors that, being less flashy than most of the modern genres, are everlasting and opalescent.

Favorite Tracks:
02 - Night Creatures ► 04 - Garden of Expression ► 07 - Dream On That

Joe Lovano - Trio Tapestry

January 21, 2019

Label: ECM Records, 2019

Personnel: Joe Lovano: tenor saxophone; Marilyn Crispell: piano; Carmen Castaldi: drums.

Grammy-award winning composer/saxophonist Joe Lovano makes his debut on the ECM Records with Trio Tapestry, a new project that integrates the highly expressive pianism of Marilyn Crispell and the inspiring drumming of Carmen Castaldi. Adopting a democratic posture, the group has the pianist and the drummer contributing in an intense way to shape Lovano’s compositions into something uniquely intimate and beautiful.

The opener, “One Time In”, a one-on-one conversation between saxophone and percussion, bristles with deliberately prayerful melodies, unpredictable percussive trajectories, and bright gongs. It leads to the most enchanting piece on the record, “Seeds of Change”, which, gravitating with lamenting intonations, illuminates the world with the warm spiritual light it needs at the present time. Don’t be surprised if you get this positive, energetic current going down your spine as this song firstly caresses your ears and then touches your heart, transporting you to a heavenly dimension.

Crispell introduces “Razzle Dazzle” with pianistic reverie and a generous dash of abstraction. The feel is corroborated by the Motian-esque spaciousness of Castaldi’s brushwork along with the plaintive lines of Lovano.

“Sparkle Light” and “Rare And Beauty” exhibit sax and piano in close collaboration, whether in the form of unisons or complementing each other with intensely deep movements, frequent emitters of peacefulness. On the latter piece, the unison statements are a bit more energetic, but there’s still a propensity toward tranquility. Leisurely rhythmic flexibility often welcomes passionate individual statements. However, this is music with commitment and Castaldi’s unobtrusive drumming asserts that there is no space for egos here, only solidarity and integrity. He showcases his gong percussion on “Gong Episode” as well as on “Mystic”, a piece he occasionally agitates with mallets, yet prevailing the general state of musing.

By displaying contemplative virtues, the trio doesn’t resort to showing you everything they can do. What they do here is harder than showing off all their technique and musical prowess at once. These tunes fly and soar before penetrating into our minds. However, compositions like “Spirit Lake” - aesthetically assembled with arpeggiated tension, restless drumming, and emotionally blazing saxophone - and “The Smiling Dog” - the biting closing piece whose intensity expands via crafted rhythmic accents and the strong communicative presence of the artists - bring in many other colors, conjuring up avant-garde jazz routines that never cease to spiritualize and amaze.

The creativity and adaptability of Lovano and his peers stimulate Trio Tapestry to endlessly pique our interest with a lucent musicality from which we don’t want to be apart.

Favorite Tracks:
02 - Seeds of Change ► 08 - Rare Beauty ► 11 - The Smiling Dog