Intakt CD 217

Three 'heavy weights' of American jazz Oliver Lake, Reggie Workmann and Andrew Cyrille make up the band Trio 3. For their 5th album on Intakt Records they have added pianist Jason Moran to the line-up. The 38 year old 'rising star' on the current scene is after Irène Schweizer and Geri Allen the third guest piano player cooperating with Trio 3. In the summer of 2012 Lake, Workman, Cyrille invited Jason Moran for a week long residency in New York's Jazzclub 'Birdland', before they recorded the CD "Refraction – Breakin' Glass" in Brooklyn Recording Studio.

The recording leads straight into the centre of what is know as 'Great Black Music' and celebrates the enormous diversity which is jazz today. Jason Moran has contributed a few compositions and shines next to these 3 giants of modern jazz as an expressive and techniclly highly skilled and intelligent pianist, who is carrying the flame of jazz into the 21st century.

On the last album of Trio 3 they were collaborating with Geri Allen on a celebration of Mary Lou Williams (Intakt CD 187). You could hear some fantastic funky playing on that release, which can be find here as well. But Jason Moran seems to function also as a catalyst for a more modern approach. On Moran's composition "Refraction" Oliver Lake turns into a rapper by presenting his poem "Breackin' Glass" in a rhythmical style. The music and the words start to dance, which can also be heart on "High Priest", deeply rooted in Soul and Gospel. This composition by Andrew Cyrille is a homage to the saxophonist David S. Ware, who died last year, where the music rocks and swings in the most incredible way.