Joe McPhee : pocket trumpet, tenor saxophone | Dominic Duval : bass | Jay Rosen : drums
Side A: * 1. (a) Visions of war (Dominic Duval); (b) Valentines In A Fog Of War (inspired by „My Funny Valentine“ (Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart Musical Babes in Arms) and „War“ (EdwinStar). * 2. Going Home (Dvorak – Symphony No. 9 “From the New World” – from the 1st movement ). * Side B: 3. (a) Dance of our Fathers; (b) Lonely Woman (Ornette Coleman); (c) Law Years (Ornette Coleman), arranged by Dominic Duval. * Side C: 4. (a) Smiles For Samuel (Jay Rosen); (b) The Basic Principles; (c) Evidence (Thelonious Sphere Monk); (d) God bless the child (Billie Holiday and Arthur Herzog). * Side D: 5. (a) For Don Cherry ( Joe Mcphee); (b) Memories Of The Dream Book (Joe McPhee and Dominic Duval); (c) In Our Sweet Way… * 6. (a) My Soul Cries Out (Joe McPhee); (b) Blue Monk (Thelonious Sphere Monk).
All compositions arranged and composed by Trio X, unless otherwise noted. * recorded 27th March 2006 at Vilniaus Konres? Rumai * mixed by Ar?nas Zujus at MAMAstudios * mastered by Jakob Riis at Hobby Workshop studio * photos by Danas Mikailionis * design by Oskaras Anosovas * executive producer – Danas Mikailionis * co-producer – Valerij Anosov. Trio X appears through courtesy of CIMP Records. Limited Edition of 500 records
A fantastic musical performance took place on 27th March 2006 at Vilniaus Congress Hall. Three musical giants – Joe McPhee, Dominic Duval and Jay Rosen (also known as TRIO X) made that evening unforgettable for their fans. Rich, colourful, intense, played almost on a telepathic level, this music is a true masterpiece of this amazing group. NoBusiness Records is proud and happy to announce that this performance has been released as a double limited edition LP. Limited edition High Quality 45 RPM
Double LP version (incl. shipment cost world-wide)
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It’s been a decade since Trio X—reedman and cornetist Joe McPhee, drummer Jay Rosen and bassist Dominic Duval—released their debut, Watermelon Suite (CIMP, 1999). Though all three members of the trio are among the busiest improvising composers on the planet, that fact does nothing to diminish the empathy on which each Trio X recording is based. Their 2006 US tour was recently documented in a lavish seven-disc boxed set on CIMPoL. In March of that year, they toured Eastern Europe and in addition to a DVD documentary on CIMP, The Train and the River (2007), their concert in Vilnius, Lithuania at Konresu Rumai now gets the double-LP treatment from Lithuania’s No Business Records. Live in Vilnius features McPhee mostly on tenor, with a few brittle daubs of cornet for good measure, as the trio engages long-form renditions of standards, Monk and Ornette Coleman tunes, and compositions by members of the group.
Trio X is far more than power trio push-and-pull; rather, they extend the Gnostic “Y” of Albert Ayler’s Spiritual Unity (ESP, 1964) into realms both historical and contemporary. On the closing “Blue Monk,” McPhee purrs velvety and slick through the theme with touches of Coleman Hawkins and Gene Ammons, with Duval and Rosen providing a light and easy lope. Yet that Monkishness grows from a shattered display of metallic, split-tone peals and vocalizing through the horn, an eruption into muscular blowing over dry, snare-crack pulse. Husky, pathos-laden tenor fuels “Valentines in a Fog of War,” part of a suite that opens the first side (including the solo bass composition “Visions of War”), earthy detail from Rosen’s brushes a pattering accent on taut bass musculature and throaty, wide-vibrato lilt.
An improvisation based on Dvorak’s 9th Symphony follows, entitled “Going Home,” which finds McPhee worrying a low blat and panning into high peals as Duval and Rosen approximate fast waltzes and a Spanish-tinged strum. The trio soon finds its way to the darkened corners of Coleman’s “Lonely Woman,” McPhee’s horn a hundred-years-old heartbreak climbing crystalline stairs in duet with the bassist’s busy pizzicato flecks. Seemingly returning to Dvorak, McPhee builds East European turns in his solo, a folksy bray here more angular than drawling. Clattering militaristic rites are paraphrased in battered pocket trumpet song, Rosen nearly disappearing as sawing arco provides a sinewy anchor.
While Live in Vilnius is a vinyl-only production, housed in a deluxe gatefold sleeve and limited to 500 copies, it stands as a testament to Trio X’s total commitment to drawing from a wealth of sources, not to mention physical and spiritual communication. With several documents now available of Trio X’s 2006 tour, one can only hope they continue to build on experience and communion for another decade.
So I am crazy, and enthusiastic. After having bought the “Trio X – 2006 US Tour”, a 7-CD box, the mailman yesterday brought me the double LP “Live In Vilnius”, also recorded in 2006, and issued in 500 numbered copies only (I got number 15, so I guess there must be some more copies available). Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania, one of the Baltic states in Europe, and one of the first releases by this brand-new jazz label, that also released two Mats Gustafsson albums so far, and that’s it. Quality over quantity, an excellent choice I would say, but I guess they must be a little crazy too, and probably even more enthusiastic.
I had to get the dust of my turntable, try to get the weights and the speed right again, and lo-and-behold, great music emerged from my speakers. The album does have some of the same pieces as on many of their other live albums, including “Going Home”, “My Funny Valentine”, “Blue Monk”, “Evidence”, and it would have been a great addition to the box set in that respect. There are differences though. The sound quality is superb, the audience larger and more enthusiastic, which may have given the musicians an extra motivation, and … there is a ten minute version of “Lonely Woman”, that could already be heard on the DVD of this performance, albeit reduced to some ten seconds. And when I hear this performance, it makes up for the cost of the album and the shipment. It starts with McPhee on sax and Duval plucking his bass, heart-rending, bluesy, intense, intimate, deep, then with McPhee on pocket trumpet, Duval using his bow, gut-wrenching, soulful, wild, passionate, sad, then with McPhee back on tenor, crying, wailing, … it is majestic, awsome, bitter, unreal.
There is no band as spiritual, as respectful of tradition, as free, as avant-garde, as soulful and emotionally expressive as Trio X, with a perfect command of the instruments, of pace, timing, pitch, emphasis. Their strongest paradoX however is that, over the years, the band reduced and reduced its music to its barest essence, inviting silence in, creating an organic and natural simplicity, but with a depth and wealth that is beyond comparison. Great!
Enregistré en mars 2006, voici Live in Vilnius transposé sur deux trente-trois tours allant à la vitesse de quarante-cinq. La rareté de la chose épouse ainsi l’entente intacte de Joe McPhee, Dominic Duval et Jay Rosen.
Au gré d’improvisations, de compositions que les membres du trio se partagent, et d’airs de diverses natures (puisque signés Ornette Coleman, Thelonious Monk, Billie Holiday, Richard Rodgers ou Anton Dvorak), Trio X déploie d’autres preuves d’un jeu intense mis au service de grandes relectures (My Funny Valentine aux sources de Valentines in a Fog of War, God Bless The Child), donc, et de passion dévorant le corps même des instruments (exaltations de McPhee sur Lonely Woman et Law Years, archet décadent de Duval sur Memories of the Dream Book).
Après avoir donné déjà une convaincante lecture d’Evidence, les musiciens en reviennent à Monk : Blue Monk éraillé mais en démontrant en guise de conclusion d’un concert d’exception aujourd’hui retenu sur les cinq cent exemplaires de Live in Vilnius.