Brought together by their affection for Sonny Rollins’ piano-less trios, QOW Trio is bursting with exuberant, energetic playing and imagination. Their second album manages to make what might seem a tired format lively and exhilarating: it positively fizzes with excitement.
Combining lesser known pieces by the likes of Jackie McLean, Lee Morgan and Kenny Dorham with tunes penned by saxophonist Riley Stone-Lonergan, most of the album plays at a cracking pace. The two exceptions are an exquisite, yearning rendition of the Ellington/Strayhorn standard The Star-Crossed Lovers, and moving version of Stephen Foster’s spiritual Hard Times Come Again No More, which provide a chance to gather one’s breath. Stone-Lonergan’s writing fits right in amongst his esteemed predessors’ tunes, producing an album which has a very unified feel.
Stone-Lonergan has provided the original tunes for this album, but there is no mistaking the total commitment to his music from the other members of this cross-generational trio, veteran drummer Spike Wells and bassist Eddie Myer, give so much and are fully equal voices in the endeavour. Wells drumming is energetic, pushing the music along with verve, and Myer’s walking bass is a dream. The music just seems to flow along. And as Wells told Phil Johnson in an interview for LJN (link below), his involvement in this group has “reinvigorated my playing and musical career”.
For all the excitement and energy, they also manage to create a laid back, lazy groove on some pieces, such as Big John Patton’s soulful In Walked John. The album closes with Johnny Mercer’s I’m An Old Cowhand – or as the trio would have it, ‘QOWhand’. It fizzes along, with a feature for Wells, leaving one – quite literally – on a high note.
Patrick Hadfield lives in Edinburgh, occasionally takes photographs, and sometimes blogs at On the Beat. He is @patrickhadfield@mastodon.scot on Mastodon.
