QOW TRIO - QOW TRIO (2021) [Hi-Res]

Tradition ain’t what it used to be.

QOW TRIO’s debut release is not so much an album of standards as an infectiously joyful compendium of vintage tunes bursting from the heart of the music, like so many blood-red silk handkerchiefs gushing from the chest of a mime at the firing squad. Given that all of creation exists as a simultaneous roar of perfection, think of this sax-bass-drums trio not as old-fashioned but timeless: Sonny Rollins is still perched on the bridge, blowing long, cold lines into the wind and always will be, after all. Hear how Riley’s loquacious sax quips a nonchalant quote from Bird’s ‘Cool Blues’ about 90 seconds from the end of the hip, dancing ‘Cheryl.’ Dig Spike’s crisp snare ‘n’ cowbell funk and Eddie’s hump-backed bass drone opening up a power swing on their namesake tune, a crashing dive through Dewey Redman’s ‘Qow,’ with Riley growling up a real out moan. Catch yourself sighing in beautiful melancholy for ‘God Bless The Child,’ with bells and cymbals shimmering like Frank O’Hara’s lost cigarette end in the great, black night. Right now, it’s about eight months since I last really heard any live music, the world shudders and groans. But these sounds are the real virus: always alive, always mutating, indestructible.

Riley Stone-Lonergan - tenor sax
Eddie Myer - bass
Spike Wells - drums