The October Trio + Brad Turner - Looks Like It's Going To Snow (2009)

Dynamic jazz-rock trio meets feted trumpet player in a program that pays its respects to the entire jazz tradition.

This heartfelt collaboration between a young Canadian jazz-rock collective (Evan Arntzen, tenor sax, Josh Cole, bass, Dan Gaucher, drums) and feted Vancouver trumpeter Brad Turner pays its respects to the entire jazz tradition, from New Orleans polyphony to the avant-garde.

There's a fine synergy at work here founded on mutual admiration and a shared aesthetic, giving equal consideration to individual storytelling and 4-way conversations, formal concision and a more expansive, imagistic or cinematic approach. Cole, the trio's main composer, cites Bjork and Wayne Shorter as major inspirations: ''Both have the ability to make one small idea have a lot of impact. But upon further investigation of the 'one small idea' you realize that it's surrounded by some rather sophisticated concepts regarding form, phrasing and space. My observation was that by focusing in on one idea, and trying to give it a lot of weight, that allows for the performers to really emotionally invest and explore the idea at a level that might not be possible if you were to present them with a bunch of different ideas in one song.'' Evan Arntzen adds: ''We know each other pretty well now and when we play we can bring whatever experiences, musical or otherwise, into the mix and have it feel fresh and new. Anyone can speak up at any time, and since it's a fairly stark form of instrumentation, i.e. no chords, that makes it easy to do this.'' As critic Greg Buium writes in the liner notes: ''Everything acts as an invitation to open things up - sonic and emotional space, an unburdened framework for improvisation.''