Most piano trios are led, naturally, by pianists, with the focus on the keyboard as lead instrument. Norwegian bass player Mats Eilertsen's piano trio is a more democratic unit, for the most part eschewing solos per se in favour of a collectively improvised sound. The vastly experienced Eilertsen has a broad conception of what his instrument can achieve, and his colleagues (fellow Norwegian Thomas Strønen on drums and young Dutch pianist Harmen Fraanje) are equally expansive, creating short studies in rhythm and texture that sail past the orthodoxies of piano trio playing. Beautifully recorded in the hallowed Rainbow studio in Oslo, the scene of so many key events in the history of modern jazz piano, Sails Set hovers on the edge of abstraction without ever going overboard.
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