Improvisation -- Live at Gravner Winery

Jazz is played on trumpets, saxophones, banjos and drums, right? Jazz always has the word “blues” in its titles, or else the name of a Broadway song. We all know that, ok? But listen, dig deep into the history of the music and it becomes clear that some of the earliest jazz or pre-jazz performances, played after hours, away from the big house and in private, almost certainly involved string players who’d been employed to accompany waltzes, polkas and maybe reels for the plantation owner and his guests.  So we shouldn’t be too surprised to hear jazz performed on violin, viola and cello. Like the String Trio of New York and a small number of similar groups, TRIO IXI have gone back to the roots of jazz in order to move it another evolutionary step forward. The “songs” may be presented as classical “movements”, but the real clue to this extraordinary record is the title. These guys improvise, and with fire.  Violinist Régis Huby knows that even with four strings you can still wail righteously. Guillaume Roy is both a second lead voice – maybe that’s the viola’s fate – but also an able accompanist, while Atsushi Sakaï is far from being a third wheel; cello is perhaps the most underrated jazz instrument of all, so close to the human voice.  New wine, then, in old skins, but absolutely of the moment. (Brian Morton)

Recorded Live at Gravner Winery (Oslavia, Italy) on 7 June 2018
Recording engineer Stefano Amerio

Photos by Elisa Caldana