May 17 2017

Recommended: Jason Rigby: Detroit-Cleveland Trio – “One”

This is one of those recordings where the musicians hurtle forward and anything that gets in their way does so at its own risk. But the driven intensity of the Detroit-Cleveland Trio of saxophonist Jason Rigby, bassist Cameron Brown and drummer Gerald Cleaver possesses the essential counterweight of differentiating momentum, where a tempo that’s the result of foot to pedal and pedal to floor is married to an unhurried melodic delivery. It gives the music of One an illusory sense of things moving slowly and an illusory sense of things moving fast… all depending on which aspect of the music is receiving attention. “Live By the Sword” is arguably the most striking example of this hypnotic sensory effect, with Rigby’s saxophone moving at a pace all its own. However, the back and forth between Brown and Cleaver on “Dorian Gray” shows that the manipulation isn’t solely the province of saxophone. Interpretations of classics like “You Are Too Beautiful” and “Embraceable You” isolate the trio’s sense of lyricism, and a rendition of Herbie Hancock’s “Speak Like a Child” is an unexpected treat, but when it’s all boiled down, the trio is at its strongest when performing its own original material.