Trio Alta

Clément Janinet
La Litanie des Cimes
Gigantonium GIG 015 LIT1

Two Made-in-France chamber Jazz trios present concepts that are markedly diverse but equally valid. Recorded in Abbéville-la-Rivière in Northern France, the Trio Alta (TA) disc is just one of the many sessions by veterans, cellist Gaël Mevel and drummer Thierry Waziniak. Involved with many other sound stylists, American alto saxophonist Michaël Attias has participated in some with Mevel/Waziniak since 2012. Deliberate and indolent the trio members combine Mevel composition with interpretations of chansons and mutated standards. Formed seven years after Attias first recorded with the cellist and drummer, La Litanie des Cimes (LDC) was organized by Parisians, violinist Clément Janinet, clarinetist Elodie Pasquier and cellist Bruno Ducret. Although the instrumentation more closely resembles a classic chamber ensemble, most tracks are lively and rhythmic. The majority were composed by the violinist, known for le quartet O.U.R.S. Part of a younger cohort each trio member plays with many other improvisers.

Ambidextrous, Attias also adds the occasional piano passage to the tracks, sometimes in unison with his saxophone lines. That happens as early as “Les mots d’amour” where his dual invocation of the simple melody is given ballast by angled cello plucks and wood bangs and drum shudders and press rolls. Matched like three sides of a triangle, none of the TA members hog precious sound space. A track such as “Benedictus”, for instance, completed by Waziniak’s tough ruffs and balanced nerve beats, blends rather than being too weighty because of sharp arco cello buzzes and Attias’ stretched flutters. Throughout the selections fluctuate between romance and rhythm. Emotion is expressed as much from Waziniak subtle bell-tree shakes and backing rattles and Mevel’s low-pitched melancholy and wide stops as the saxophonist’s off-kilter reed asides that sometimes blend freylekhs and Free Jazz inferences. While there are also excursions into allegro and even presto tempi, the comprehensive mood stays languid. In fact the characteristic display of this savory-spiky layering is on Mevel’s “La valse pour rigoler”. Attias’ float from emphasized altissimo to Desmond/Konitz-like brightness is amplified by the cellist’s supple string picking and the drummer’s relaxed plops.

LDC’s commitment to livelier material is underlined on “Blues”, the first track and goes on from there. Creating a Blues progression from cello plucks and frog pressure against violin strings, Janinet’s fiddle slices and Pasquier’s reed double tonguing confirm movement as they harmonize on the simple narrative. Other tracks expose smoother or more densely concentrated tones. “Valse”, for example has a calm middle section blend that suggests Early Music, before multiple spiccato and dissected slides from the strings attach themselves to reed modulations to repeat the jumpy swing found at the introduction. But the key to the group’s appeal is unforced momentum, that’s one part string slices, one part pizzicato strumming and one part clarion reed puffs. A clue is that one track is even entitled “Gigue avec Steve”, where responsive clarinet trilling and back-and-forth string plucks distend the exposition only enough to make the timbral layers bounce. Melody and modulation challenge one another throughout and the best instances of these encounters occur on the following “Metche New” and “Banian Tree”. The second is a rare instance of lento and moderato harmonies, as each player pushes out one single tone at a time, waiting for the next to respond and stretching the line with near-baroque harmonies until fiddle slices and clarinet slurs break up the top line as the cello provides continuum. “Banian Tree” in contrast is initially a compendium of mandolin-like twangs from the violinist and spiccato angling from the cello as Pasquier creates a flutter-tongued showpiece one-half-step higher pitched than the others’ output. A contrapuntal motif involving clarion reed bites and cello stops completes the sequence.

Chamber improv can be languid, it can be lively or it can be both. These trios show how to squeeze the maximum in perceptive sounds from these realized contradictions.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Trio: 1. Les morts en parlent au bord de la mer 2. Les mots d’amour 3. Le jardinier de Grenade 4. Nana 5. Christie 6. Benedictus 7. Jewish Song 8. Valse pour rigoler 9. L’énigme éternelle

Personnel: Trio: Michaël Attias (alto saxophone and piano); Gaël Mevel (cello) and Thierry Waziniak (drums)

Track Listing: Litanie: 1. Blues 2. Ciel 3. Seconde Méditation 4. Valse 5. Gigue avec Steve 6. Patte-d’Oie 7. Metche New 8. Banian Tree 9. Mauvais Temps 10. Hanami

Personnel: Litanie: Elodie Pasquier (clarinet); Clément Janinet (violin and tenor violin) and Bruno Ducret (cello)