With their record Thwirl not long released, Stephan Crump's Rosetta Trio play a rare date at the Vortex in London tonight, their only UK date of a short European tour. The show is being recorded by BBC Radio 3's cutting edge Monday night jazz programme Jazz on 3 for future broadcast. It’s a club Crump has played a few times in recent years with Vijay Iyer, yet this is new, a chance for the Dalston audience to sample the bassist in the little known Rosetta line-up featuring two guitarists: the avant gardist acoustic guitar exponent Liberty Ellman, who stood out as a member of Henry Threadgill’s Zooid at a London Jazz Festival concert in 2011, joined by Jamie Fox, completing the trio, a lead guitarist tenured with rockers Blood, Sweat, & Tears in the late-1990s. Fox plays electric on Thwirl, a deliciously titled stroll through 10 tunes mostly written by Crump, the trio having first released Rosetta in 2006 not long after the band came into existence, followed then by Reclamation four years later. Laidback and sun-lit the pervasive atmosphere is one of a Peanuts-like reverie with quixotic and welcome solos that just seem to happen, like a remark someone interesting might have made in the course of a conversation. Fox’s interjection on ‘Still Stolid’ is so organic it almost biodegrades. One of the early agenda-setting gigs at the Vortex for the early part of 2014.
A video featuring the title track of the album top
updated 27 Nov 2013; 25 Jan 2014; and 4 Feb 14