Carla Bley, Andy Sheppard, Steve Swallow - Trios

Softly Softly

This should be late-night fare, though third Les Trois Lagons [d’apres Henri Matisse] is bebop lively enough at the start, Sheppard’s sax dancing along with Swallow’s bass, but even this slumbers down to a meditative motion.  It is the slower and becalmed numbers/moments that caress most, as with opener Utviklingssang where Sheppard’s suspiring saxophone softly soothes. New to Bley, I found a recording of this song from her 1981 album Social Studies here, and it is interesting to compare the change in pace and density, this initial version horn heavy, but the Trios’ version a barer affair. Both gorgeous. Indeed, all songs on this latest album are reworkings of Bley originals and I have some further enjoyable discovering to pursue.