What a very absorbing and satisfying generous helping of avant tonalities and in places Ornette Coleman like bluesiness this all proves.
This flute and alto sax, piano and drums recording was made last November at a studio in Mount Vernon not far from New York City produced by pianist Vijay Iyer.
I agree wholeheartedly with what Kevin Le Gendre writing in Jazzwise describes as the “sometimes unassuming but penetrating emotion and structural focus quality” of the outcome.
Fifteen is the trio’s first studio release and takes its name from the fifteen years the trio have been performing together.
Structurally democratic, the compositional blueprint is prised wide open and shared out fairly evenly, handing three tracks to the jagged, angular soundscapes of saxophonist and flautist Henry Threadgill, three to the progressive harmonic directions of pianist Vijay Iyer, and two to the texturally expansive open sound of drummer Dafnis Prieto. Shifting metres and soaring, unhurried melodies seamlessly transform into heavy, seething crescendos. It isn’t a groove/riff kind of record at all. There’s a strong elegiac feeling on ‘Perfect Victims’ one of the most impactful pieces. While a very abstract expressionist work emotion isn’t absent and certainly on this piece there is a lot of feeling.
The tracks are: ‘Trio Piece’; ‘Last Night’; ‘I Wanted a Map’; ‘Where Coconuts Fall’ which I think has some of the strongest connections with the innovations that Ornette Coleman brought in to jazz in the 1950s; ‘Gently Trapped’; ‘Fire City’; ‘Perfect Victims’; ‘On the Way.’
Threadgill, 82, has maintained a steady creative output over the last few years. Alongside this trio release, he is releasing Cut You Where You Was via Pi Recordings, featuring the return of his ensemble Zooid. This follows the publication of his autobiography, Easily Slip into Another World: A Life in Music.
Pianist Vijay Iyer, 54, has spent recent years expanding his work with both his standard trio and various duos. He recorded the duo album Defiant Life on ECM with trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith, following his 2024 trio release, Compassion. On the compositional front, he also premiered What Isn’t Hard to See, a set of violin and piano nocturnes.
Drummer Dafnis Prieto, 52, marked a dual milestone with the release of 3 Sides of the Coin via his own Dafnison Music label. The project celebrated his 50th birthday and 25 years since moving to New York, reuniting his Sí o Sí Quartet to explore rhythmically complex Latin jazz concepts.
- Vijay Iyer plays solo at the National Concert Hall, Dublin on 7 November
