Chagas Curado Viegas Wind Trio - Old School New School No School (2012)

Eleven pieces, largely if not entirely improvise, by Viegas (soprano and bass clarinets), Chagas (flutes, oboe, sopranino clarinet) and Curado (flute, soprano and alto saxophones). the language is pitched somewhere between efi and the sort of post-Third Stream music initiated by the Davis/Newton/Wadud trio back when, iffy territory for these ears, though handled quite well here. That kind of loosely jazz-based, abstract lyricism is a rough go for me; I kind of feel the need to hear something on a Giuffre level, surely an unfair standard but one that nags. As ably as the instruments are played (and they are) and as lovely as the resultant textures have a tendency to become (and they often do), I can't help but think that a greater underlying melodic sensibility, however masked, would have helped. The trio dances around it but stays outside. For these ears, if you're not obliquely referencing the blues, as a similarly constituted Hemphill/Lake/Mitchell trio would have, it's not a bad idea to offer an acknowledgement of one's own tradition, or *a* tradition. Otherwise, as attractive as some of the pieces here are, there's an insubstantiality that's hard to brush aside. Not meaning to be overly critical--fans of this area of music will likely find much to enjoy here--I think it's a tough avenue to take nowadays. - Brian Olewnick, Just Outside