Jaded Angels (Watson) [7:57]
Ghosts on the Wall (Watson) [6:08]
Fallen Angels (Watson) [6:44]
Ice Lady (Watson) [7:33]
Dice in the Sky (Watson) [10:17]
Consolation (Watson) [4:31]
House of Mirrors (Watson) [8:18]
Eric Watson (piano)
Peter Herbert (bass)
Christophe Marguet (drums)
rec. Studio La Fonderie, Malakoff, France,
no date given
Born in 1955, the American
pianist Eric Watson moved to Paris in 1978,
having studied classical piano, composition
and jazz improvisation at the Oberlin Conservatory.
Since then he has built up a very considerable
reputation as both soloist and accompanist;
he has worked with many major figures in jazz
– they include Steve Lacy and Albert Mangelsdorff,
Paul Motian and Ray Anderson. His work has
won him many awards and much critical praise
in France, but his reputation barely seems
to have reached the UK. It is our loss that
we haven’t heard so much of his music.
Albums under his own name
have included Silent Hearts (1999)
a trio recording with Mark Dresser and Ed
Thigpen, a solo ballad anthology, Sketches
of Solitude (2002) and, in a quartet co-led
with German saxophonist Christoph Lauer, Road
Movies (2004). Watson has also written
a good deal of chamber music and music for
dance companies.
On this present trio album
Watson is joined by two experienced collaborators,
in Herbert and Marguet, and their familiarity
with one another’s work is everywhere evident.
There is a seemingly intuitive interplay between
the three. It is a largely ruminative collection,
only rarely getting above medium-slow tempo;
this does make for a certain sameness of mood,
but it also serves to attune one to a particular
idiom so closely that one becomes aware of
even the subtlest changes. The one substantial
exception is Dice in the Sky, ten minutes
of harder-edged, more obviously swinging music,
leaving one in no doubts as to range of skills
which these musicians bring to the table.
All the compositions are credited to Watson,
but in truth it is often very hard to be sure
where composed music ends and improvised music
begins.
Some of Watson’s lines inevitably
remind one of Bill Evans; at other times Paul
Bley – and even a kind of less intense Cecil
Taylor – comes to mind. I mention these names
not to suggest that Watson’s work is merely
derivative, which it most definitely isn’t,
but just to indicate something of the kind
of musical territory it occupies. There are
plenty of attractive melodies, often with
unexpected twists and turns and there are
some subtle rhythmic and harmonic inventions.
Anyone who enjoys the post-Evans
piano trio is urged to investigate this consistently
interesting album, which impresses both by
the sheer craftsmanship of those involved,
but also in terms of the feel of honesty which
it exudes and the high level of imaginative
commitment.
Glyn Pursglove
CD Reviews
ACT
9452-2 [51:36]
