TRIO 3
OLIVER LAKE - REGGIE WORKMAN - ANDREW CYRILLE
Intakt CD 106

 


OLIVER LAKE ALTO SAXOPHONE, SOPRANINO SAXOPHONE
REGGIE WORKMAN: BASS
ANDREW CYRILLE DRUMS


1. A CHASE OLIVER LAKE 6’07
2. MEDEA REGGIE WORKMAN 5’23
3. TIGHT ROPE ANDREW CYRILLE 6’17
4. EQUILATERAL LAKE / WORKMAN / CYRILLE 8’44
5. LOPE OLIVER LAKE 4’41
6. TIME WAS LAKE / WORKMAN / CYRILLE 8’43
7. PLAYING FOR KEEPS LAKE / WORKMAN / CYRILLE 6’38
8. GIVEN (The Whirlwind) ANDREW CYRILLE 4’24
9. TIME BEING LAKE / WORKMAN / CYRILLE 5’09
10. SPECIAL PEOPLE ANDREW CYRILLE 4’53

Oliver Lake, Talkin Stick Pub (SESAC) / Reggie Workman, Sculptured Sounds Pub (BMI) /
Andrew Cyrille, Major-A-Music Pub (ASCAP) / Recorded, mixed and mastered March 6, 7, 8, 2005
at Studio Peter Karl, Brooklyn, New York / Engineer: Peter Karl
Liner notes: Gary Giddins / Photos: Dominik Huber / Cover art and design: Eugen Bisig
Produced by Intakt Records. Executive production: Patrik Landolt and Rosmarie A. Meier

MAILORDER-PRICE:
Schweiz: 30 SFr. plus 3 SFr. Porto
Deutschland/Österreich: 18 Euro plus 3 Euro Porto/Versand
International: VISA / MASTER: 30 SFr. plus 5 SFr. Postage

Order adress: Intakt Records, Postfach 468, 8024 Zürich, Fax: 0041-1-383 82 33


Please click here to order

 

 

... .. .
Oliver Lake, Reggie Workman, Andrew Cyrille, New York 2005. Photos: Dominik Huber

 

 

«Für mich ist dies das gelungenste Album vom Trio 3. Als ich die Gruppe in den späten achtziger Jahren erstmals hörte, war da zwar schon die erwartete Virtuosität; am gemeinsam betriebenen Komponieren und den Gruppenimprovisationen zeigte sich ausserdem das Bestreben, ein Kollektiv zu bilden. Dennoch folgten die Auftritte häufig noch dem konventionellen Muster «Saxophon plus Rhythmusinstrumente». Time Being dagegen ist wahre Triomusik: Kaum ein Moment vergeht, in dem man nicht spürt, wie die Musiker aufeinander hören.
Reggie Workman wurde 1937 in Philadelphia geboren und gilt unter Kollegen als der Inbegriff eines Bassisten. Nachdem er sich in seiner Heimatstadt die Sporen in einer Clubband abverdient hatte, zog es ihn ostwärts: zu Gigi Gryce’ Gruppe, Blakey, Miles, Monk, Lateef, Shepp, McLean, Roach, Murray etc. pp. – er hat mit allen gearbeitet. Ich weiss noch, wie ich ihn zum erstenmal hörte (auf der A-Seite von John Coltranes Live at the Village Vanguard). So richtig aufhorchen liess er mich dann aber mit dem Altsaxophon-Bass-Duett in «Lost in the Stars» auf Gary Bartz’ Another Earth. «Wer ist denn das?» rief ich damals.
Andrew Cyrille studierte an der Juilliard and Hartnett School of Music (wo er Cecil Taylor kennenlernte und 1958 auch kurz mit ihm spielte) und ging dann bei einer ganzen Reihe von Jazzgrössen in die Lehre, von lebenden Legenden wie Hawkins und Mary Lou Williams bis zu wagemutigen Newcomern wie Bill Barron und Roland Kirk. 1964 begann seine historische Zusammenarbeit mit Taylor, die elf Jahre dauern sollte und ihm den Ruf eintrug, einer der genuin musikalischsten und innovativsten Drummer jener Epoche zu sein.
Oliver Lake kam 1942 in Marianna, Arkansas, auf die Welt und wuchs in St. Louis auf, wo er später an einer staatlichen Schule unterrichtete und Rhythm & Blues spielte, bis er sich schliesslich der Black Artists Group anschloss. Anfang der siebziger Jahre kam er nach New York, mit einem Album im Gepäck, das er auf seinem eigenen, noch heute existierenden Label Passin’ Thru produziert hatte. Zusammen mit Julius Hemphill (mit dem er das denkwürdige Album Buster Bee einspielte, Anthony Braxton und Arthur Blythe hauchte er dem Altsaxophon neues Leben ein und wurde sogleich zu einer zentralen Figur der Loft Era. Er gründete mit Hemphill, David Murray und Hamiett Bluiett das World Saxophone Quartet, schrieb das Bühnenstück The Life Dance of Is, leitete mehrere Bands in der Nachfolge von Eric Dolphy und Reggae (Jump Up) und betätigte sich auch immer wieder in den Formationen von Kollegen, 1988 etwa in Reggies Trio Transition, aus dem dann Trio 3 hervorging.»
Liner Notes by Garry Giddins, 2006

 


Andrew Cyrille, Oliver Lake, Reggie Workman.Photo: Dominik Huber

 

 

«Time being what it is, there are several ways to approach Time Being, the latest and, I think, best of the Trio 3 albums – among them, its miscellaneous approaches to time,
ranging from meterless meditation to swing to stately waltzing; and the collective
experience of the group’s membership, a figure exceeding 130 years, for the time being. This cumulative experience involves the assimilation of every kind of jazz, from pre-bop mainstream to the furthest reaches of the avant-garde to sundry precincts on the world music front.
To me, this is the most successful Trio 3 album because it supersedes its predecessors in achieving genuine tripartite equality. Time Being is true trio music: Hardly a moment passes when the listener isn’t aware of the musicians listening to each other.
Reggie Workman, born in Philadelphia in 1937, has always been regarded as a bass player’s bass player. After proving himself in the house band in a hometown club, he moved east with Gigi Gryce’s group, Blakey, Miles, Monk, Lateef, Shepp, McLean, Roach, Murray, and on and on – he’s worked with everyone. I remember the first time I heard him (side one of John Coltrane, Live at the Village Vanguard) and the first time he stopped me in my tracks: the alto saxophone and bass duet on “Lost in the Stars,” from Gary Bartz’s Another Earth – I shouted, “Who is that?” One of his longest-running asso-ciations has been with Andrew Cyrille, a rare New York musician who was actually born in New York, in 1939.
Andrew Cyrille studied at Juilliard and Hartnett (where he met Cecil Taylor and briefly played with him in 1958), then apprenticed with the full panoply of jazz musicians, from
abiding legends (Hawkins, Mary Lou Williams) to daring newcomers, including Bill Barron and Roland Kirk. In 1964, he began an historic 11-year association with Taylor, es-tablishing himself as one of the most instinctively musical and inventive drummers of the era. I had the pleasure of producing a few Taylor events as an undergraduate in 1968, and a highlight was Andrew’s solo workshop, tracing the history of jazz percussion – a presentation he expanded in his remarkable video, Jazz Methodology in Drum Music (In & Out of Meter). In 1975, he organized Maono, one of the great ensembles of its time.
Oliver Lake, born in Marianna, Arkansas, in 1942, grew up in St. Louis, where he taught public school and played rhythm and blues before becoming a member of Black Artists Group. In the early ‘70s, he came to New York with a self-produced album on his own, still active label, Passin’ Thru. Along with Julius Hemphill (with whom he recorded the memorable Buster Bee), Anthony Braxton, and Arthur Blythe, he breathed a new life into the alto saxophone, and immediately became a central figure in the Loft Era, joining with Hemphill, David Murray, and Hamiett Bluiett to form the World Saxophone Quar-tet. He created the theatrical piece The Life Dance of Is, led simultaneous bands that ex-plored the legacies of Eric Dolphy and reggae (Jump Up), and worked as a prolific side-man, as on Reggie’s Trio Transition, in 1988, leading to Trio 3.»
Liner Notes by Garry Giddins, 2006

 

Andrew Cyrille on Intakt Records

 

Intakt: home