AALY TRIO “Sustain”

- Advertisement -

ARTIST

Aaly Trio

ALBUM TITLE

“Sustain”

LABEL

Silkheart

______________________________________________________________

After nearly a quarter of a century, it seemed that the story of the AALY Trio had reached its definitive conclusion, despite the group’s historic status within the Swedish jazz scene. Formed in 1986 – although Peter Janson would not join as bassist until a decade later – the trio took its name from an anagram of Albert Ayler’s name devised by the Art Ensemble of Chicago and used as the title of one of its compositions, “Lebert Aaly”.

Over the years, AALY became one of the leading ensembles in Swedish free jazz and beyond, occasionally expanding into a quartet with the addition of Ken Vandermark. Fittingly, it is the American saxophonist who accompanies the release of Sustain through his liner notes. The album has been a long time in the making, marking the trio’s first release since Double Or Nothing in 2002.

Although Gustafsson, Janson and Nordeson have each pursued numerous projects in the intervening years, Sustain reveals a level of chemistry that suggests they had stopped playing together only a week earlier. All three musicians approach every piece with remarkable intensity, whether interpreting compositions by figures such as Roscoe Mitchell, Vandermark, Frank Wright, David Wertman and Norman Howard – to whom Gustafsson had previously dedicated a tribute – or performing original material.

That said, the overall result is somewhat uneven. The group is at its most convincing when the abrasive energy of free jazz is embedded within a clearly defined structure, as heard in the well-known “Why I Don’t Go Back”, the gospel-inflected “Soul Brother Genius”, dominated by Gustafsson’s austere baritone saxophone, Roscoe Mitchell’s “Rock Out”, where a funk-like pulse propels the flute, and the crackling “Deepfreeze Pretend”.

Less persuasive are those moments in which the legacy of classic free jazz – particularly that of Albert Ayler, the trio’s primary reference point – is embraced too literally, slipping into a degree of convention. These performances ultimately expend themselves in short, furious bursts of energy, as in “Your Prayer” and “Dustdiver Kneeling”.

Yet this, too, is part of the AALY Trio’s musical identity: better to take it than leave it.

Giuseppe Piacentino

DISTRIBUTED BY

silkheart.se

LINEUP

- Advertisement -