Label: Fair Weather Friends Records, 2022

Personnel - Leandros Pasias: piano; Vangelis Vrachnos: double bass; George Klountzos Chrysidis: drums + Guests: James Wylie: alto saxophone (#1,3,5,6); Nicolas Masson: tenor and soprano saxophone (#2,4).

Paying homage to the sea, the Yako Trio shows considerable musical malleability on their sophomore album OdesSea. The follow up to their self-released debut Ode to Yannis (2018), which paid tribute to the late Greek composer Yannis Konstantinidis, is made of six diversified tunes that, influenced by jazz and classical idioms, evokes the mercurial temperament of the trio formed in Thessaloniki, Greece, by pianist Leandros Pasias, bassist Vangelis Vrachnos, and drummer George Klountzos Chrysidis.

Heavily invested in an upbeat post-bop and delivered in a winged 3/4 tempo, “The Call” opens the album with modal brilliance, showing that Pasias’ writing is not pedestrian. Guesting on this one to steal the show is the New Zealander saxophonist James Wylie, a member of Anna Webber’s septet Percussive Mechanics. His outside incursions and zigzagging maneuvers find a continuous harmonic track in the fluidity of the piano playing. An unaccompanied bass statement winds up with a pedal point, transitioning to an ecstatic finale where the saxophonist flanks his spiked-punch phrases with long, stunningly timbral one-note blows.

The title track is percussively stable, cooked with restraint despite the dynamic soprano solo by Swiss saxist Nicolas Masson, who switches to tenor on the Vrachnos-penned “Sand”, a ballad with emotional heft. Navigating a completely different wavelength, “Afromacedonian Dance”, another piece by the bassist, explores non-Western sounds with the gravitational pull of a 15-beat bass groove that defines its smooth dancing quality. Wylie dialogues with Pasias, before Vrachnos and Chrysidis enhance their parts.

With less individualism and more collectivism, “Indian Dream” calmly develops in seven, spreading a gentle breeze that involves us earnestly. However, Wylie steps forward, cascading lyrically over the swelling texture of the song’s last segment. The album closes with Pasias’ “Lullaby”, a fragile song driven by subtle brushwork and economic, if well-measured, bass plucks.

This is a very satisfying set by a trio that pushes itself to fertile territories with firm-footing consistency and modern taste.