Everest. Kilimanjaro. Fuji. Some mountains simply should be climbed, it doesn’t matter what. Blind Willie Johnson’s “Darkish Was The Evening, Chilly Was The Floor” is a bit like that. The guitar-playing preacher’s 1928 gospel-blues masterpiece looms massive, and loads of guitarists (notably Ry Cooder and Jack Rose) have contended with it. Whereas their efforts typically lead to nice music, the mountain by no means will get any smaller. So, give this pan-European jazz trio credit score for taking over a stern problem; its efficiency of the tune opens this 10-inch report, which was recorded at Steve Winwood’s Wincraft Studio in rural England.
Samuel Blaser, it have to be mentioned, will not be shy about taking over challenges. (Full disclosure: I’ve written liner notes for some digital releases that Blaser put out throughout COVID time.) He’s sought out ongoing working relationships with a few of jazz’s nice drummers (Paul Motian, Pierre Favre, Gerry Hemingway), tailored opera themes to improvised music and used his trombone to conduct a solo audio tour of the Funkhaus, Berlin’s historic recording-studio advanced. Blaser is up for a problem. He and the remainder of his trio—French electrical guitarist Marc Ducret and Danish drummer Peter Bruun—acquit themselves properly by strolling a slender path bounded by religious constancy and artistic interpretation. Ducret’s opening, fuzz-encrusted chords are appropriately grave, and Bruun stokes a gradual boil whereas Blaser’s muted horn walks the unique’s melody alongside a path of tears.
The remainder of the report (4 tracks on vinyl, plus two longer performances accessible by way of obtain) returns the trio to the extra acquainted unknown of spontaneous co-creation. Blaser, Ducret and Bruun slalom by “Hook” like bandits on skis, chopping a method and one other with out ever shedding contact with each other. “Intro” makes a robust case for the ensemble’s skeletal lineup by exhibiting the malleability of empty house with each low growl or stuttering apart. The threesome delves into terse interaction on the longer, download-only tracks, sounding intently engaged and unstable on “So” and languid however fastidiously balanced on “The Different View.” The choice to report in Winwood’s studio, which doubles as a rehearsal soundstage, pays off by rendering Ducret’s diversified tones and Bruun’s spare commentary in refined element. [Blaser Music]
—Invoice Meyer