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Bob Gluck Trio: Returning

By Henry Smith
September 4, 2011
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The piano trio can be a difficult format for free playing. It is too easy for the piano, so easily a dominating instrument, to overshadow the bassist and drummer, rendering them as backup to the more harmonically complex keyboard. This is fine, and an enormous amount of great music has been made in this format, but when it comes to more exploratory veins of jazz, it is difficult for a group to exhibit the simpatico required for simultaneous creativity and, on the part of the pianist especially, restraint. Yet

Bob Gluck

piano
b.1955

" data-original-title="" title="">Bob Gluck Trio's Returning makes it all look easy.

To be fair, the trio is comprised of three veteran musicians. Gluck is an accomplished and well-respected pianist in the field and bassist

Michael Bisio

bass, acoustic

" data-original-title="" title="">Michael Bisio's prodigious output includes work with

Matthew Shipp

piano
b.1960

" data-original-title="" title="">Matthew Shipp and innumerable projects of his own, while drummer

Dean Sharp

drums

" data-original-title="" title="">Dean Sharp has played with musicians as diverse as Moby,

Brad Mehldau

piano
b.1970

" data-original-title="" title="">Brad Mehldau and

Elliott Sharp

guitar, electric
b.1951

" data-original-title="" title="">Elliott Sharp. Despite their diverse backgrounds however, they sound custom-fit here, settling in immediately on the opening "Lifelife," with a lyrical theme that meanders around a central descending line before opening outward. The group's skill for loosely flowing improvisation fills in the blanks between the careful constructions of

Bill Evans

piano
1929 - 1980

" data-original-title="" title="">Bill Evans' trio work and

Cecil Taylor

piano
1929 - 2018

" data-original-title="" title="">Cecil Taylor's richly complex energy. That is a large space indeed, and within it the group finds a sound all its own.

The title track opens with a Bisio solo, richly recorded and confident in its punchy execution, before Sharp and Gluck snap it into focus with the song's melody. Sharp scampers around his kit, sitting in distinct sound worlds for a time, re-contextualizing Bisio and Gluck's fairly steady playing around him. The drummer even moves into percussive sounds that recall

Henry Threadgill

woodwinds
b.1944

" data-original-title="" title="">Henry Threadgill's work on his self-made hubkaphone. It is a richly varied piece.

Elsewhere, Gluck's tendency toward more classical sounding themes emerges. "That's All You Got?" recalls

Conlon Nancarrow

" data-original-title="" title="">Conlon Nancarrow's "Study for Player Piano No. 24," its staccato theme quickly settling into a groovy meander through variations on its waltz-like nature. "By a Field" is, on the other hand, more brooding and less playful, Sharp's clattering metallic jangles and cymbal bows careening through Bisio and Gluck's fluttering lines.

"Something Quiet" is, as the title suggests, a sparsely played piece for a rainy day. It contains the same qualities of romance that are a strain throughout the record, but in a more subdued vein that speaks to the record's conclusion. It is a fitting finale to a beautifully executed album.

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Track Listing

Lifeline; Returning; That's All You Got; By a Field; There's No There There; Vertigal; Something Quiet.

Personnel

Bob Gluck

piano

Bob Gluck: piano; Michael Bisio: bass; Dean Sharp: drums.

Album information

Title: Returning | Year Released: 2011 | Record Label: FMR Records

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