The Trio - 'By Contact'

As announced in the previous post, here is the final entry in the Trio discography. Nominally the third, if one discounts "Conflagration" which was not strictly speaking a Trio record, though with the Trio at its core. We have posted the first double album which has been reissued on cd and the "Live in Altena" which had a limited circulation back then and has not been officially rereleased.

This one was out on the Ogun label in 1987, 16 years after its being recorded in the Tangerine Studios in London. There's a misprint on the back sleeve saying it was recorded in 1979, but by then the Trio had long disbanded. It was remastered at the Rainbow Studios in Olso in 1986. This studio was reguarly used for ECM recordings and by then John Surman had pretty much shifted to ECM as his main outlet. So it is more than likely that Surman had kept the master tapes and asked the studio to do a remastering job on them. But ECM didn't release them.

Six pieces on this record:

Side 1
Flyover (John Surman)
Open Brown (Barre Phillips)

Side2
Utah, Oregon (Stu Martin)
Noninka (Stu Martin)
Cant (Barre Phillips)
In The Round (Martin, Phillips, Surman)

Stu Martin - drums
Barre Phillips - double bass
John Surman - baritone and soprano saxes, bass clarinet, cornet

As the other Trio records, this is very much a collabarative effort with composition credits liberally divided among the three. This one has the novelty of hearing Surman on the cornet. I'm not sure if this was a one-off thing, because I can't recall Surman playing cornet regularly later. On other tracks, he switches to bass clarinet and soprano sax, though it's the baritone that is his main instrument throughout. Moodwise, it shifts from ferocity to placidity, with Stu Martin supplying the former and Barre Phillips the latter, at least to these ears.

The final three pieces pieces on the second side pretty much run together, so I haven't put in track markers. It's fairly easy to hear the transition points as Surman picks up another instrument to head into the next tune. For more details, please consult the extensive liner notes by Charles Fox on the back of the sleeve, attached to this post.

Up next: The Berlin Jazztage 1969 concert