I have the belief, not necessarily valid, that it is kind of difficult to be unconventional as a piano/bass/drums trio - admitting if that being unconventional is the criterion you choose to measure innovation in music or that this feature itself may at all be regarded as a value. And, well, unless you’re not speaking of Shipp/Parker/Brown playing a composition by David S. Ware.
Quiet as a Bone, named after Dylan Thomas’ “Once Below a Time” poem’s closing line, marks the debut as a leader of the New York based pianist Art Bailey. Sounds and their evocation play a major role in Thomas’s poetry, which is why I find it so appealing that reference is made to such a quotation that masterfully embodies the idea of silence, to introduce an album that certainly is not silent and quiet.
From the very first notes a strong cinematic taste spreads through the listener catapulting him into a seventies exploitation movie. An ideal score to a car chase scene or to a “could please someone save the world?” climax. You can choose the subgenus and enjoy yourself seeking which track you would link to a peculiar passage of the plot. And I’m telling this as an absolute preciousness of the album. Take a look to the “Des Femmes disparaissent” soundtrack by Art Blakey and make your own comparison.
No extended techniques divert the listener from the strong cohesion of each single composition; an enjoyable interplay of the rhythm section set up by bassist Michael Bates and drummer Owen Howard faithfully build a solid foundation on which the piano can deploy its beguiling voice between baritone layers and galloping lyrical Hancockian melodies. The trio is never self-indulgent, guiding each arrangement through a clear and pleasant development, giving to every “scene” of the work its intelligent length.
It may be not a new and undiscovered path but it is a solid and pleasurable one indeed or in any case a valid option to some not unforgettable movies.
Concluding as we began with Dylan Thomas, the album is not as quiet as a bone and you won’t be hearing any raven coughing in winter sticks (from “Especially When the October Wind”) if hoarse and icy squawks are what you’re looking for.
Listen and watch here:
Buy here: (http://www.artbailey.org/listen/)
© stef
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