Thinking of the great post-bop piano trios of my lifetime, few if any can match the trio of Leipzig-born pianist Joachim Kühn with Jean-François Jenny-Clark and Daniel Humair. An instinctive elision of the harmonic sophistication of Tyner and Corea and the freedoms of Ornette Coleman, the music’s simultaneous sense of discipline and abandon guaranteed a white-knuckle ride. Kühn has since recorded with two more long-term trios – the World Trio with Moroccan guembri player Majid Bekkas and Spanish percussionist Ramón López, and the New Trio with Chris Jennings and Eric Schaefer – and whilst each offers something different and rewarding in its own way, their achievements have perhaps inevitably paled in comparison to the high watermarks of Kühn/Humair/Jenny-Clark.
Incredibly Kühn is now an octogenarian, and perhaps chasing the thrills and spills of yore he now returns to Siggi Loch’s ACT Music with what is perhaps some of his most challenging music for decades. Dubbed the French Trio, the press notes explain that the name is intended to convey that their music is played “the French way, with lightness, speed and elegance”. His collaborators were both handpicked with a specific approach in mind – Thibault Cellier (bass) is best known for his work with Papanosh and Novembre, while Sylvain Darrifourcq (drums) is associated with one of Kühn’s recent collaborators, saxophonist Émile Parisien. Convening at Kühn’s Ibiza home and studio in June 2023 for rehearsals and recordings, the pianist describes the resulting tapes as representing “how I want to sound now”.
Opening brightly with Ornette Coleman’s “Homogeneous Emotions”, a piece that Kühn often returns to, the spirit of both Kühn/Humair/Jenny-Clark and his late ‘60s Paris sessions for BYG looms large. Coleman’s playful theme quickly dissolves as the trio launches into a searing double-time improvisational rush, the brilliant Darrifourqc constantly stoking the flames. The fourteen minute title-track is credited to all three musicians, a frantic rubato intro cueing a searching bass solo before Kühn re-enters sparks a fresh conflagration. The transition from turbulent free improvisation to elegant classical counterpoint at the end of the piece is truly sublime, and it typifies the way that this trio is constantly building and replacing structures. “Go Süd” is by some distance the most reflective piece of the set, an open textured free-ballad with ample space for the three musicians to carve their individual filigrees, while the closing “Supertonic”, a semi-abstract burnout, finds the trio unleashing wave after wave of life-affirming energy without ever losing sight of its very musical core.
If there’s an obvious difference between this trio and Kühn/Humair/Jenny-Clark, other than the facile explanation of “different people, different times”, then it is surely that they favour long-form development over rapid turnaround. All told it’s simply stunning piece of work, and a powerful reminder that Kühn is still a vital force at the music’s cutting-edge.
