Garden of Expression

Lovano's Trio Tapestry explore delicate distillations of the musical resources that all three members have often individually set loose with warp-speed intensity… Garden of Expression is about... — The Guardian, 29th January 2021, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 23rd Apr 2021
Catalogue No: 3520638
Label: ECM

Presto Recording of the Week

29th January 2021
Presto Recordings of the Year

Winner 2021
The Guardian

Jazz Album of the Month

January 2021

1. Chapel Song

2. Night Creatures

3. West of the Moon

4. Garden of Expression

5. Treasured Moments

6. Sacred Chant

7. Dream on That

8. Zen Like

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Recording of the Week, Joe Lovano - Garden of Expression

29th January 2021

Joe Lovano's second recording under the 'Trio Tapestry' project further hones the controlled, meditative sounds of the project, making for a highly evocative record.

The debut album of Joe Lovano's Trio Tapestry was one of 2019's most talked-about releases. The trio's musical concept - the Boston Globe spoke of "utterances of hushed assurance, lyricism and suspense" - is taken to the next level on its second album, Garden of Expression, a recording distinguished by its intense focus.

Lovano, a saxophonist whose reach extends across the history of modern jazz and beyond, plays with exceptional sensitivity in Trio Tapestry. And the music he writes for this group - tenderly melodic or declamatory, harmonically open, rhythmically free, and spiritually involving - encourages subtle and differentiated responses from his creative partners. Joe describes their interaction as "magical".

Carmen Castaldi's space-conscious approach to drumming further refines an improvisational understanding that he and Lovano have shared since the 1970s. The trio is also a wonderful context for Marilyn Crispell's solos, counter melodies, and improvisational embellishments, and her feeling for sound-colour helps the chamber music character of the group to flower.

The details of the music are beautifully realized in this recording made in the highly responsive acoustics of the Auditorio Stelio Molo RSI in Lugano.

Reviews

29th January 2021

Lovano's Trio Tapestry explore delicate distillations of the musical resources that all three members have often individually set loose with warp-speed intensity… Garden of Expression is about the spaces between sounds as much as sounds themselves - but, as in meditation, they're spaces that resonate with stories.

February 2021

Lovano conceptualised Trio Tapestry from his experiences in the Paul Motian Trio, where the absence of a bass saw him move between accompanist and soloist. He also expands on a period of deep study of serialism following his work on Rush Hour in 1995 with Gunther Schuller. These may sound challenging parameters within which to work, yet Lovano’s saxophone tone, working in a range from pianissimo to moderato, is sufficiently light to produce beautiful, detailed filigree improvisations that seem to float in the air, is not one to reveal the mechanics of music.

April 2021

Perhaps the most impressive thing about Garden Of Expression is the emotional range these three pull from this music. From the spare, prayerful asceticismof “Zen Like” to the sprightly post-bop interplay of “Dream On That” and the epic sweep of the title tune, Trio Tapestry suggests a universe of possibilities within its deeply spacious sound.

29th January 2021

‘Tunes’ feels like a misleading way to describe these pieces. Lovano’s compositions on Garden of Expression suit the record’s title; a collection of modal mood pieces, not necessarily driving as they are free and open, Lovano’s saxophone graceful rather than forceful, a guided tour of his imagined garden.

When Joe Lovano's in this mood, there's really nobody else on the planet to compare him with. Five decades plus of creativity and the saxophonist still produces music as inspiring and astonishingly beautiful as this… incredible.

These are musicians listening intently to one another - where their silence is as important as their statements...Trio Tapestry conjure a meditative sound world that's all their own.

Garden of Expression

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Recording of the Week, Joe Lovano - Garden of Expression

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