Eric Revis

Can you tell when a straight-ahead jazz performance – live or recorded – is also an experimental one? No? We can: it happens when Eric Revis is involved, being this double bassist the not-enough-recognized link between Betty Carter and Peter Brotzmann. “City of Asylum” was born from an idea with improbable potential to become a reality – his thought was: what about if I start a trio with a free jazz veteran and a post-everything rising star, would that work? And what about if those roles are represented by Andrew Cyrille, Cecil Taylor’s drummer from the mid-Sixties to the mid-Seventies and now an established, mainstream voice, and young Kris Davis, maybe the most expressive and surprisingly minimalistic of the present day creative pianists? Strange? Not so: since the first gathering a spark happened and this is a trio in continuous development. There’s only three compositions played, by Thelonious Monk, Keith Jarrett and Revis himself; the rest are improvisations. So cohesive that it seems written note by note.

PERSONNEL:

KRIS DAVIS, piano
ERIC REVIS, double bass
ANDREW CYRILLE, drums

Samurai Hotel, New York, April 12, 2012.

TRACKS:

01. Vadim
02, Egon
03. Gallop's Gallop
04. Sot Avast
05, For Bill Traylor
06. Prayer
07. St. Cyr
08. Harry Partch Laments the Dying of the Moon and Laughs
09. Question
10. City of Asylum