I've had the pleasure of hearing two great takes on the sax/bass/drums format over the last week, both anglo-american groups who have gigged in london and come into Trinity College of Music to do masterclasses. First up is Julian Siegel's trio with Joey Baron on drums and Greg Cohen on bass; they have a great CD out from last year on Basho records. I come into contact with Julian a fair bit at Trinity, usually in classes and combos, so it is always great to hear him practice what he preaches, which in the case of this band means tonnes of feel, amazing sound, and a lot of heart! And of course loads of clear, brilliant ideas. Coupled with what is a deeply grooving, sensitive combo of Cohen and Baron they had a packed out Vortex completely enthralled.
As if that wasn't enough to get me worried about job prospects for pianists, then came along Julian Arguelles with his trio of Michael Formaneck (bass) and Tom Rainey (drums). I've always loved Julian's beautiful fluidity and harmonic ideas, and it's great to hear them in the context of some more open-ended writing; when I asked him about the setup he described it as 'limitless'. I was blown away by the resolve and improvisational understanding within the group. Must track down their CD now. I'd love to hear a gig with these trios taking a half each......