Friday, August 19, 2016

USA/GERMANY: Jakob Bro , Thomas Morgan, Joey Baron - Streams (ECM 2016)


Streams 
On his second leader album for ECM following on from the prizewinning Gefion - Danish guitarist Jakob Bro continues to refine his trio project, with its emphases on melody, sound, space, layered textures and interaction.

The rapport between Bro and Thomas Morgan (Bro calls him my musical soul mate) has become something extraordinary, and often guitarist and bassist develop improvisational ideas in parallel.

Theres an historical aptness, too, in the choice of Joey Baron as the bands new drummer, for Bro first encountered Morgan when the bassist was playing in Barons band a decade ago... On Streams Joey Baron dives into the musics detail with obvious pleasure.

This recording features five new Bro pieces: Opal, Full Moon Europa, Shell Pink, Sisimut and Heroines (heard in both a trio version and a particularly lovely solo version).

Completing the albums repertoire is the freely improvised PM Dream, dedicated to the late Paul Motian.

Jakobs approach to melody acknowledges the influence of Motian, and both Bro and Morgan played in the late drummers ensembles. Recorded at Studios La Buissonne in the South of France in November 2015 and produced by Manfred Eicher.