Maria Kannegaard Trio - Camel Walk (2008) FLAC

Tracks

1. Drifting Down the Nile
2. Haunted
3. A Cup of Coffee and Some Danish Pastries
4. Camel Walk
5. Bits
6. Quite at Rest
7. Hurry, Slowry
8. Sliding Doors
9. Travelling Pass
10. We Interrupt for a Short Commercial

Personnel

Double Bass – Ole Morten Vågan
Drums – Thomas Strønen
Piano – Maria Kannegaard

Camel Walk is Danish-born, longtime Norwegian-based pianist Maria Kannegaard's third trio release since Breaking the Surface (ACT, 2000), retaining the same line-up as Quiet Joy (Jazzland, 2005). Those looking for largely delineated solos may have to go elsewhere; Kannegaard's approach has more to do with gradual, almost hypnotic evolution and collective interaction than a conventional approach that, even in such a clearly democratic collective, places the piano front and center.

It's a modern approach to the piano trio format that's almost antithetical to its very core, yet creates a new aesthetic appealing in its combination of rich melody and oftentimes quirky compositional constructs. "Drifting down the Nile" revolves around a relatively simple premise, with Kannegaard rarely straying from her defined theme and circular changes; the pianist's persistent use of repetition referencing minimalist classicism without sounding anything like it.

Freedom also plays a large role in the process. "A cup of coffee and some danish pastries" begins in spare abstraction, with up-and-coming bassist Ole Morten Vagan—heard recently on Kannegaard's Maryland (Moserobie, 2007) and emergent pianist Havard Wiik's The Arcades Project (Jazzland, 2007)—and more established drummer Thomas Stronen (of Humcrush and Food), creating an oblique foundation for Kannegaard's quietly majestic motif to repeatedly emerge, only to dissolve again into more open-ended spontaneity. Stronen is listed as drummer, but his kit is an expanded one that includes all manner of hand and tuned percussion, used in subtle ways to create a broader sonic landscape.

JOHN KELMAN