Sugar Blade

Description

Like so many of the best adventures, the transatlantic trio of Irish drummer Stephen Davis and American trumpeter and pianist Ralph Alessi and Kris Davis grew organically out of a series of happy accidents... Steve Davis explains:

"The group started with me writing some music originally for trumpet and piano. I had written other stuff for my London based group Human, which had a similar vibe but this music was more introvert, had lots of little hidden things within it. I won an Arts Council grant which enabled me to work on my writing and travel a bit, so I headed for New York.

"I met Kris through saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock: after some initial conversation over email we decided to do some playing together when I was in New York which turned into a recording. As I had this music already composed for piano and trumpet I suggested we got a trumpet player to join us and Kris mentioned a few she liked to work with. Once she said Ralph I jumped at it!We contacted him and he said 'yes' so the trio was born.

The recording was done in around five hours in a studio on Brooklyn. It was just so easy.The three of us just connected and I loved it.The music is part composed,part improvised.I really did not tell them much, I just chatted about certain feelings within the compositions or different approaches to phrasing. Other than that we just played and listened to each other. I had no aims other than to get the music into a place of freedom."

Sugar Blade is the result of those five hours of freedom in a Brooklyn studio - a crucible of invention where three disparate voices combine in the moment to create cohesive musical statements.

Listen to how the opening track, 'Let's Go Knitting,' combines Kris Davis's fidgety, nervous piano with Alessi's aloof trumpet commentary, riding an information-rich undertow of dense snare work, with Stephen Davis throwing out swift blurs and trills and punctuating rim-shots. Or how, in 'Broken Light,' a plangent trumpet calls out across a throbbing piano pulse while the drums imply a groove that never quite fully manifests. Or how, in 'Red Velvet Bun/I Want You Back,' a hint of swing in the cymbals combines with a prim and strident horn and ominous, low piano rumblings to build an unlikely and counter-intuitive toe-tapper.

As Stephen Davis suggests, these are pieces that continually toy with the border where improvisation and composition meet, creating compositions that zing with freshness and spontaneity, and improvisations that follow unbreakable rules of logic. Only in the sprightly groove of 'Cemetary Sleep' do we hear a hint of playful regimentation, with trumpet and piano locked into a tight unison hook over spiky drums. You can almost hear the trio smiling.

Sugar Blade is right. These tunes require sweetness of ear and sharpness of intellect.

STEPHEN DAVIS
For the best part of a decade,Northern Irish drummer, Davis, has been one third of heavyweight UK free-jazz trio, Bourne Davis Kane, alongside pianist Matthew Bourne and double-bassist Dave Kane, releasing several highly regarded CDs including collaborations with veteran British saxophonist Paul Dunmall. He also leads the quartet, Human, featuring Alexander Hawkins, Alex Bonney and Dylan Bates, which released a debut album, Being Human, on Babel in 2013.

RALPH ALESSI
New York-based, San Franciscan trumpeter-composer,Alessi, has been a ubiquitous presence on the downtown scene for decades. He has worked with Uri Caine, Ravi Coltrane, Fred Hersch and others but is probably best known for being a member of bands led by saxophonist Steve Coleman. Jazz Times says: "Alessi has drop-dead trumpet chops and his music is as clean and airy and sophisticated and disciplined as post-modern progressive jazz gets."

KRIS DAVIS
Pianist-composer, Davis, has blossomed as one of the singular talents on the New York jazz scene, a deeply thoughtful, resolutely individual artist who offers "uncommon creative adventure," according to Jazz Times. The Vancouver-born, Brooklyn- residing Davis was dubbed one of the music's top up-and-comers of 2012 in the New York Times. In addition to her work as a leader, Davis has performed with Paul Motian, Bill Frisell,Tim Berne, John Hollenbeck, Michael Formanek and Mary Halvorson.