With each of his
Trio Tapestry albums, it feels like saxophonist
Joe Lovano is trying to strip his playing and the group's sound down to its most essential elements. On their third album, 2023's
Our Daily Bread, he takes this approach even further, turning each song into what feels like a prayer. Once again joined by pianist
Marilyn Crispell and drummer
Carmen Castaldi,
Lovano doesn't so much improvise with his bandmates as commune with them, crafting songs that have the atmosphere of a dark room meditation and other times the quiet warmth of a friendly front porch conversation. Of the meditative variety there is "Grace Notes," which opens with the abrupt shimmer of a gong and a full minute of silence before
Crispell's low piano rumble shepherds the trio back to life. The song features
Lovano on the tarogato, an Eastern European instrument whose reedy sound (a combination between a clarinet and a soprano sax) blends with
Crispell's Asian-influenced harmonies like a singer whispering through fog. More brightly convivial is the title track, a swirling ballad the trio imbues with the romance of the sun breaking through the clouds after a rainstorm. Equally textural moments follow, as on "Le Petit Opportun," where the slow interplay between
Lovano's dusky tenor and
Crispell's ghostly chords sounds enticingly like
John Coltrane playing a
Claude Debussy song. There's also "One for Charlie,"
Lovano's unaccompanied tribute to
Charlie Haden where his tenor seems to evoke the legendary bassist's own focused artistry. Toward the end of the album, the trio offer "Rhythm Spirit," whose structure is built around an improvised line from
Lovano, a musical mantra that
Crispell and
Castaldi answer with their own affirmations. The song, as with much of
Our Daily Bread, feels like a sacred call and response. ~ Matt Collar
