Lage Lund/Will Vinson/Orlando le Fleming
OWL trio
Losen records ***1/2
Produced by photographer Jimmy Katz and recorded two years ago in the same former church in Brooklyn as Orchestrion the very place Pat Metheny’s robot orchestra first sprung to life, OWL Trio is an expatriates’ album by two British players: alto saxophonist, Will Vinson and bassist Orlando le Fleming; and Thelonious Monk prize-winning Norwegian exile, guitarist Lage Lund, the three all now well established working in New York. From the off the listener takes a trip to a nostalgic past, maybe to some time in the monochrome 1950s. That isn’t a problem at all by the way as nowhere do you feel, ah: the good old days, what a cheat! Lund has great technique as you'd expect and better than that poise; and there’s a clarity in his lines and a care in his improvisations that is remarkable and ought to appeal greatly to connoisseurs, particularly anyone schooled in the music of Jim Hall. Three tracks are co-operatively written by the trio (‘Hallow’, where the trio take the improvising out); ‘Churchgoing’; and ‘Blues for Jimmy’; while the rest are fairly familiar standards including ‘I Should Care’, ‘Dear Lord’ and ‘Yesterdays’ that nonetheless sound fresh mainly because there’s some great interpretative skill at play even if the album could do with a few less manicured numbers as contrast. Vinson can draw out what almost sound like harmonica notes from the saxophone if that isn’t too odd a thought while Le Fleming recalls the pure tone and command of a Geoff Gascoyne or Ron Carter, he’s that good. You can also hear Lage Lund on new Criss Cross release, Foolhardy.
Released on 8 July. The trio play Pizza Express Jazz Club, London on 9 July. Tickets www.pizzaexpresslive.co.uk