The Jazzcat

The three M’s Melford, Mark and Matt represent powerful creativity beyond the third power; mighty indeed. In a day and age where pretty much everything we encounter is presented in a nice little box, the audacity of thought, provocation and implication are so very welcomed especially to an audience of spirits who may be physically grounded but whose conscious is as vast as the galaxy!

People have their concepts of freedom but this notion really comes to life when you here these tones blend as beautifully like a three on one fast break! “Al” is for Albert, and Matt wrote this one for the forget-me-not of the Avant Guard, Mr. Albert Ayler.

“Guest House”, the title track of the latest, was more like the fun house as each player takes their instrument and explores sounds possibilities.  Mark Dresser is awesome at bending and tweaking the notes creating new colors on the pallet. Myra plays a million drops of love that scatter when they hit and come to life in patterns that you can only begin to recognize towards the end of the cognition. Matt continues to make percussive sense and clarity out of each and every equation; the new math is upon us!

Trio M makes love to notes; each deliberate, special and unconditional. This love is respect for the music, for each other and for you: a genuine romantic dance with sound spinning and flowing like the movements of an Alvin Ailey dancer. This is a co-operative venture where each part of the M makes for great writing and musical contributions, as evidenced by Mr. Wilson’s “Hope for the Cause”

“Echoneni” was -named by Mark Dresser after a passage from a novel; delightful, happy sounding and mystical with Marks us of harmonics, Matt says that “Dresser is four strings with an attitude”! Matt incorporates the orient with a western sensibility and Myra serves stimulation by plucking strings and firing off staccato finger dances and frenzied precision elbow clusters on “The Kitchen”

Most of the music tonight can be found on “The Guest House” the latest release from Trio M on the Enja jazz label. “Even Birds have Homes to Return to” is another beautiful Myra Melford composition with Dresser’s lovely angelic and mystical Arco bowing, Matt’s use of bells and chimes and Myra’s harmonic spiraling black swan approach all make for peaceful and romantic cerebral journeys.

Mark and Myra have been traveling to other countries and performing with the cultures’ different local musicians and “Telemojo “ was the offering written for that purpose. Together each member of the Trio combines their talents to construct a sound that emulates a sophisticated carnival crank music box, minus the monkey stretching the unconventional into new dimensions returning unscathed and highly enlightened from the journey.

If your search is to find “the Promise Land” of intelligent sound, then “The Guest House” is one significant stone that must be overturned on the path!

LeRoy Downs