Samuel Blaser & Russ Lossing + Billy Mintz

Proving that good things come in small packages peripatetic Swiss trombonist Samuel Blaser reduces his musical story-telling to only involve a duo and a trio on this notable two-CD set. Someone who has played in all sorts of configurations, Blaser has shown a preference for duo work in the past and the Roundabout disc features him with long-time associate U.S. pianist Russ Lossing. Lossing in turn sticks to the acoustic model, eschewing the electric keyboards he often brings to other Blaser sessions. On Triple Dip the two are joined by New York drummer Billy Mintz, who usually plays in groups with Roberta Piket  and who hasn’t recorded with the trombonist before.

Setting up the interface with the first and title track, Blaser and Lossing work through 10 musical tropes tune elaborations based around the trombonist’s facility with among other motifs, plunger snorts, portamento movement and dissected grace notes. Meanwhile, often with broken octave affiliations, the pianist harmonizes, decorates and extends the narratives. He also frequently expresses Blues-influenced interludes, adding distinctive options and confirming his basic New World orientation. Just as the trombonist often introduces Harmon-muted passages to give his plunger growls added heft, Lossing doesn’t restrict himself to mid-range comping. Inner piano string and soundboard pivots and other keyboard tropes are also in play. On a track like the extended “Twitch” for instance the pianist’s galloping key clipping is a perfect foil to Blaser’s racing triplets and adds to that track’s drama.

At the same time dynamic swing is also part of the duo formula. Although some tracks ripple with very little horizontal movement, others break up the expositions for more sound coloration. “Relentless” parlays portamento brass smears and bouncing piano key clips into energetic call and response with the exposition including trombone blasts encompassing the instrument’s lowest tones contrasted with jerky, higher-pitched keyboard variations. In contrast “A presto” maintains that tempo, but here it’s Blaser’s Harmon-muted variations that fasten onto basement pitches and Lossing’s boogie-woogie-like piano stops project lightness.

Trangularizing the program, Mintz’s understated swing fits in with what Lossing and Blaser have already evolved. However his drumming patterns make the second CD more of a combo session with tracks demarcated with solo and accompaniment sections. Pieces such as “Free Verse” and “Triple Dip” open up for piano work on the former and drumming on the later. Lossing’s sympathetic arpeggios are prominent on “Free Verse creating emphasis and color that connects with Blaser’s basement scoops but then continues down the scale as the trombonist creates higher-pitched slides. Mintz’s paradiddles and ruffs set the stage for “Triple Dip” with the percussion creating mid-section, foot-tapping excitement that attaches itself to squirmy emphasized triplet slides from the trombonist. Later “Root beer rag” is just that, featuring syncopated finger busting from Lossing, a rumbling backbeat from Mintz with the low-pitched plunger theme projected by Blaser with elated prongs that could get him a place in a New Orleans parade.

With Mintz’s dynamic input strengthening the interaction from the bottom, the trombonist and pianist have even more space in which to showcase tandem intensity with smears and clips first expressed on CD1. Balancing on similar tone patterns, the matched composure exhibited whether the tune are swift and tinkly or slower-paced and jolting is maintained. The session’s only head-scratcher is the final cut, “Love song from the Apache”, whose syrupy soundtrack-like brass and piano motifs seems to have wandered in from another disc.

Other than that both CDs showcase three musician playing at top of their form in duo or trio configuration without compromise or conditions.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: CD1: 1. Roundabout 2. Permeate 3. Sospira 4. Twitch 5. Fleurette  6. Luglio  7. A presto  8. Dama  9. Relentless 10. Blasercaglia CD2: 1. A Presto  2. Twitch  3. Free Verse  4. Triple Dip  5. Dark was the night, cold was the ground  6. Root beer rag  7. Kitchensleeper  8. Jingle  9. Love song from the “Apache”

Personnel: Samuel Blaser (trombone); Russ Lossing (piano) and Billy Mintz (drums- CD2)