John Law Trio
John Law – piano
Sam Burgess – double bass
Asaf Sirkis – drums / percussion
Reviews of John Law’s trio album ‘The Art of Sound Volume 1’
Phil Johnson
Pianist John Law has been a world-class improviser at the sharper end of British jazz for years, but this new trio immediately puts him into a whole new category: as melodic, accessible and catchy as anyone in the crowded piano trio sector. Over ten original tunes, Law manages to combine the best elements of the classically influenced northern European jazz tradition with hard-swinging, intensely textured solos. Keith Jarrett is an obvious point of reference, with Burgess on double bass and Sirkris on drums grounding Law’s airy aesthetic like Peacock and DeJohnette. One of the jazz albums of the year!
***
John Fordham. The Guardian
British pianist John Law introduced this fine trio last November, and you could have heard a pin drop when they played at the Vortex jazz club. Law is steeped in both classical music and jazz, and it may not be coincidental that this first set of a trio series has a title link to American jazz/classical piano star Brad Mehidau’s Art of the Trio sequence. Like Mehidau, Law plays boldly independent lines in each hand, likes hooks that slowly evolve over subtle harmony changes, is captivating at low volumes and surefooted on swing. For a free jazz and contemporary-classical explorer, this set is an explicit shift toward accessible tunes. But Law’s spontaneous virtuosity and the skills of his partners offer many options. As well as being a formidable thematic improviser, whose phrasing constantly opens up new twists, Law writes beautiful romantic ballads. And, together with bassist Sam Burgess and thrilling drummer, Asaf Sikris, he hops themes and time signatures without blinking. If anything can make Law’s powers apparent to a wider public, this should.
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