Russ Johnson, Tim Daisy & Max Johnson - Live At The Hungry Brain (Fundacja Słuchaj, 2024) Trumpet Trio Series

By Stef Gijssels

This is the tenth album by master trumpeter Russ Johnson as a leader, next to appearances on more than a hundred albums. The latter fact demonstrates that he is very sought after and able to perform in various contexts and styles. He is classically trained which you can hear not only from the purity of his tone, but also from some of his phrasings when improvising. I came to know his music and playng in the beginning of this century when I discovered in my local music library the New York modern jazz scene with musicians such as Michael Blake, Jenny Scheinman, Ohad Talmor and bands such as The Other Quartet, Roy Nathanson, Touch Acoustra, all with Johnson on trumpet. 

On this album as a leader, he is in the company of Tim Daisy on drums and Max Johnson on double bass, also two musicians with brilliant mastery of their instruments. The trio presents us with two long collectively improvised pieces, with a quality, intensity and inventiveness that you wish they did more often, and with a sense of freedom that we have seldom heard the trumpeter perform in. 

All three musicians have their share of the creation, with strong moments for the percussion and bass too, seperately or collectively. They move us to different moods and dynamics, with very nervous and jazzy agitation to quiet almost modern classical music, especially in the last half of the second improvisation, when Max Johnson switches to bowed bass, and Russ Johnson's crystal clear tone weaves wonderful meditative phrases, subtly accentuated by Daisy's precise percussion. They lead us to two long soundscapes with many different ideas and pieces without losing the coherence of the overall sound

The performance was recorded live in the Fall of 2018 at the Hungry Brain, Chicago. 

I think Russ Johnson and this trio deserve wider attention. It's such a treat to hear them play. 

Listen and download from Bandcamp.

Here is a video of a life performance of the trio at the Jazz Central Studios in Minneapolis, MN on May 13th, 2017.