Luke Stewart Silt Trio - Unknown Rivers (PI Recordings, 2024)

By Ferruccio Martinotti

After zillions of rounds made by our turntable, we eventually developed the “Martini straight-up theory” applicable to music ensembles. Super easy, as follows: 1) few, basic ingredients (no symphonic jazz, no paper umbrella in the glass); 2) top notch quality of them (powerhouse rhythm section, Piedmont vermouth and extra dry gin); and, fundamental, 3) the final result must exceed the sum of the parts. Check it from the Stones to Miles’ and Trane’s quintets and you won’t go wrong. Or take the Irreversible Entanglements, surely one of the best and most meaningful bands emerged in the last years. You got four extraordinaries albums showing a full cylinders, pedal to metal unit and at the same time the excellent body of work of the single members: Moor Mother will be surely remembered as the Black Voice of a generation but the musical outcome that is backing her outspoken, inflammable words is simply terrific; Keir Neuringer’s 2020 album with Rafal Mazur has been defined by Stef “a real treat” (and you don’t cheat with Stef...); Aquiles Navarro & Tcheser Holmes’ 2019 Heritage of the Invisible II is a super favorite of ours. Last and for sure not the least of this stellar lot is the bass of Luke Stewart.

As Stewart's description on his website states, he is a "musician, performer, improviser-composer, organizer and writer-researcher whose work represents a deep reverence for the history and tradition of Creative Music: a tradition which encompasses the diverse styles of expression within the body of Black Music in the U.S.A., Africa and throughout the world. Regular ensembles, beside Entanglements, include Silt Trio, Exposure Quintet and Blacks' Myths". Small pieces of advice by our side to get acquainted with Mr. Stewart: The Bottom, along with Chad Taylor on drums, Brian Settles on sax, as Silt and the Exposure Quintet with the mighty Ken Vandermak and Edward Wilkerson jr. on reeds, Jim Baker on piano and Avreeayl Ra on drums. This time we see the usual Silt Trio line-up but with the drums duties shared by Chad Taylor (3 songs live in Detroit) and Trae Crudup (4 songs in a Baltimore studio), offering to the listeners the chance to navigate on waters of (music) rivers running at different paces.

The studio tracks' stream is pretty quiet, letting you the room to breath along with the instruments or at least so it seems, you don't lose the control even though it's easy to feel the situation could get severe in few moments and in fact this is what happens on the live side of the record: furious, roaring white waters but with the boat firmly keeping the route thanks to the astonishing rhythm section that, this time with Taylor, is setting the drumming according to the new situation. Finally, the icing on the cake: Brian Settles and his sax. We have to admit we knew very few of the DC's musician before and listening to him on this record was a real jaw dropping experience: cutting, warm, furious, smooth, colourful, old and new schools perfectly mixed as rarely seen, he brought us back memories of the late, lost legend of Massimo Urbani.