Gregorio/ Karayorgis/ McBride – Chicago Approach

Nuscope 19

A strong dose of irony comes with the realization that a trio that disbanded after a $1.05 coffeehouse gig has ended up exerting a lasting posthumous influence on improvised music. The fortuitous partnership of Giuffre, Bley and Swallow continues to color the work of improvisers the world over with this convergence of clarinetist Guillermo Gregorio, pianist Pandelis Karayorgis and bassist Nate McBride is but the latest in a long list of proponents. In common with his contemporary Franz Koglmann, Gregorio's surveys into earlier schools of jazz like swing, Cool and Third Stream have motivated him to explore cerebral music making in a myriad of forms. The disc's title references another indelible pull, that of the Midwestern municipality he's called home base for over a decade. Karayorgis and McBride also have strong connections to the city, often through associations with Ken Vandermark, whose Free Fall trio is another kindred project.

Giuffre's musical presence is palpable throughout the program, most readily in the cover of "Variation," the disc's penultimate track. The trio also includes an inspired interpretation of Don Friedman's "Spring Signs," the pianist having served as Bley's initial replacement in Giuffre's 60s trio. Most of the other pieces are collectively improvised, but communicate the order and structural continuity of composed pieces. As is the Nuscope custom, acoustics are dry and limpid, bringing into keen focus the nuances of each instrument and revealing a collective sound that is sometimes calmative on the surface, but far from subdued upon closer inspection.

The trio engages in constant activity across the fifteen tracks. Gregorio's pitch gradations capitalize on the lubricious resonating properties of his reed. Swooping glisses animate "Chicago Space II" while "Airplanes" traffics in mellower fare, its flight plan wending through pastoral exchanges. Free counterpoint factors heavily into the interplay with the three players twining at various speeds and trajectories to create complex grids that also preserve commodious aural space. Karayorgis' key strokes combine beauty and ambiguity, his slanted runs lining the cracks without lacing things up. His composition "Tap" includes one of the date's most memorable melodic motifs. McBride is similarly nimble with fingers and bow, shadowing and enhancing the action of his colleagues without crowding. It's unclear whether this trio will continue as a working unit, but it seems likely that any gigs they might secure will yield revenues exponentially larger than the fiscally doomed ensemble that inspired them.

~ Derek Taylor