Jasper Høiby told the crowd that when he first encountered pianist Noah Stoneman and drummer Luca Caruso while teaching at the Royal Academy of Music, he instantly liked what he heard; a possible future collaboration with one of the two was not out of the question, he thought. That he would be co-authoring a full-length album and creating his first post-Phronesis trio with the pair might have seemed far-fetched back then. And yet, just a few years later, the bassist was doing exactly that – with the student-teacher barrier broken, Høiby’s new collective Three Elements was born.
The trio performed two sets comprised wholly of Høiby’s original compositions. They combined numbers from this group’s recent release, Earthness, with solo compositions from Høiby’s earlier albums, Planet B and What It Means To Be Human. The result was impressive from the outset. Opening with the title track of the new album, the group managed to maintain harmony while allowing themselves to experiment savvily with tempo, and this continued in many of their pieces. Despite Høiby being the face and senior member of the group, Stoneman and Caruso felt very much equal partners in their performance; neither felt like a supporting player in the slightest. Stoneman’s piano was delicate and tasteful, particularly in his performance of “Life is a Gift”, and perfectly replaced the saxophone on Høiby’s original recording. Caruso’s drum solo at the beginning of “Mellow (IOC)” set the tone for the end of the second set and allowed Høiby’s bass to flourish into the last few songs. What really struck throughout the concert was the chemistry of all three players, no matter the varying textures and speeds invited by the music.
This synchronicity is even more remarkable when considering the manner of the conception of Earthness. Høiby explained that the entire album was written, practised and recorded in two days at an east London studio – the first day merely consisted of the group messing around with melodies together. It was only on the second day that their music became a body of work sophisticated enough to become an official release. The Dane’s demeanour throughout the whole performance cast a figure rejuvenated by two younger musicians that share his vision; it seemed as if Høiby, having taught the two musicians so recently, seemed to be relishing the opportunity to now learn himself from two rising stars.
World Heart Beat Embassy Gardens is at first unassuming; tucked away in the sprawl of new-builds that now dominates Vauxhall and Nine Elms, the venue’s outside appearance conceals a state of the art performance space which allows unrivalled proximity to the artist. The space matched the sentiment of Three Elements – while occasionally addressing the audience with his typical wit, Høiby mostly kept quiet, and let his group’s music do the talking. Judging by the rapturous standing ovation from the audience at the end of the encore, it was a pretty good way of making their mark on the audience. Here’s hoping we continue to see one of the finest jazz bassists around pair with up and coming talent like Stoneman and Caruso for years to come.
