Quinsin Nachoff (tenor); Mark Helias (bass); Dan Weiss (drums).
(Review by Lance).
The releases from Whirlwind Recordings continue apace from either side of the Atlantic. The latest one to arrive at the BSH Head Office overlooking the Tyne and Wear Metro Line features New York based, Canadian born, saxophonist Quinsin Nachoff and is well worth checking out. I wasn't too sure as to how ethereal the trio actual was so I took the easy way out and Googled 'ethereal synonyms'.
Airy, Celestial, Exquisite, Ghostly, Intangible and Sublime were the top answers and the trio ticked all the boxes. Not all the boxes on every track but, over the course of the six pieces, managed to touch down on at least one and occasionally all.
Chordless trios can be looked at from different angles. To some it's a licence to drive on either side of the road and, if it ends in a car crash, it's somebody else's fault. Others view it as three people taking a different route to the same destination but getting there at the same time.
The Ethereal Trio work to this latter goal but, although going their own way, constantly draw from each other. Nachoff describes it, "All three of us love to investigate different color and extended techniques, so many different directions are possible. Once we've understood what the direction is for each composition then that's when the magic starts to happen."
The magic does happen - not, for me, on every number but on enough to keep me interested. Nachoff has a dry tenor sound rather like what Jimmy Giuffre may have sounded like had he listened to Illinois Jacquet or Ike Quebec. Helias is merely (!) prodigious whilst Weiss is given a pair of free hands.
I'm not going to say, "Rush out and buy" but I will say, "Give it a listen - you may be pleasantly surprised"!
Lance.
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