Christoph Stiefel Inner Language trio
Big Ship
Basho Records ****
You’re in safe hands from the start on Big Ship. Recorded in the German city of Osnabrück last summer, surely not one of the most glamorous settings to record an album, the 52-year-old Zurich-born pianist’s newly configured Inner Language Trio steps up the mark on this collection of 11 tunes. Stiefel’s piano style may be more grounded in the music of Bill Evans but like both Gwilym Simcock and Martin Tingvall, to a lesser extent, it’s all tempered with sublimated intimations of classical music deep down in the cavernous hold of this particular maritime vessel where hints of Ravel and more spill out of the tightly packed cargo. But Big Ship isn’t just about a fine piano player: it’s about the trio as a unit and they all click, bassist Arne Huber and drummer Kevin Chesham as super-subtle and wise as Dan Berglund and Magnus Öström were in EST. The most startling European jazz trio I’ve come across since first hearing Tingvall trio it’s a delicious album of Stiefel’s own compositions, wrought with their own wistful energy and imaginative bittersweet resolutions. The narrative arc the trio so instinctively assembles spins out, even in ‘First Blossom’ the briefest of the compositions, and draws you in like a moth to the flame as the ship sails blithely on.
Released on 24 February