Joe Lovano, Marilyn Crispell, Carmen Castaldi - Our Daily Bread (2023)

Each member of Trio Tapestry—saxophonist Joe Lovano, pianist Marilyn Crispell, and drummer Carmen Castaldi—has an utterly distinctive voice. Lovano, who has integrated the influence of John Coltrane into his own highly developed sound, is one of the best tenor players in jazz. Crispell, known for her impressive discography and her work with Anthony Braxton among many others, brings a lucid touch and a great sense of space to her instrument. Castaldi is a very unusual drummer—low-volume, spare, free; at times he can recall the late Paul Motian, with whom Lovano also collaborated. (Castaldi and Lovano, both Cleveland natives, have collaborated off and on for decades.)

2023's Our Daily Bread is the group's third album and it's excellent. On "All Twelve," Crispell lays out a twelve-tone row before Castaldi's artful taps and hits come into play. Lovano enters with a wobbling run and the group goes on to coalesce in delicately balanced ways. "Grace Notes" opens with unaccompanied gong tones that are followed by Eastern-flavored piano and rippling trap-kit cymbals. Lovano plays the tárogató, an Eastern European woodwind with a pinched sound evocative of oboe and soprano saxophone. Later, he switches to tenor sax, changing up the group vibe.

"One for Charlie" finds a solo Lovano paying tribute to the great bassist Charlie Haden. The blues-tinged piece, which features exquisite phrasing, is both low-key and moving. "Rhythm Spirit" is a duo for sax and drums and here, Lovano's thoughtful performance is backed by gongs and pianissimo drumming—Castaldi's incredibly quiet dynamics on the track are downright radical.

Crispell rejoins her bandmates for the mysterious "Crystal Ball," where Lovano's sax brushes against her clearly articulated melodic fragments, and at times, piano and sax unspool lines in tandem. Throughout, drums provide an abstract percussive backdrop. There's muted dramatic tension in this music. It doesn't reach out and grab you; instead, it pulls you in with its subtleties.

TRACKLIST

1. Joe Lovano - All Twelve
2. Joe Lovano - Grace Notes
3. Joe Lovano - Le petit opportun
4. Joe Lovano - Our Daily Bread
5. Joe Lovano - One for Charlie
6. Joe Lovano - The Power of Three
7. Joe Lovano - Rhythm Spirit
8. Joe Lovano - Crystal Ball