…The aura of players who are totally relaxed and trusting in each other’s playing.
Circum-Disc: CIDI 2201
Stefan Orins (piano); Christophe Hache (bass); Peter Orins (drums)
Recorded 11th October 2021 by Vincent Leignel and Peter Orins at Maison Folie Hospice d’Havre in the Tourcoing Jazz Festival
This recording marks the 25th anniversary of the Stefan Orins Trio and carries with it the aura of players who are totally relaxed and trusting in each other’s playing.
Often the pieces revolve around dialogues between pairs of the musicians, with the third instrument sitting back patiently to wait their turn.
And, perhaps, patience is a defining quality of this trio – not simply in terms of the interplay of the musicians but also in the ways in which the listener is invited to respond to the shifting tones and moods of each piece.
This is not to say that the music is uniformly calm or calming. Indeed, on pieces like ‘Wangari Maathai’, there are bursts of energy, and ‘The Hindu’ or ‘Taplow Court’ switch between a variety of meters.
Rather, the ways in which each piece unfolds calls for an attention to detail that repays careful listening. This is not because the music is ‘difficult’ – often the pieces have an immediacy that is attractive and easy to get into – but because there is such richness and delicacy in the playing of each member of the trio.
It is easy to forget that this is a live recording because the instruments are so well miked and the audience noise minimal – until the applause at the end of each piece.
This applause recognises the quality of the music being played and I am entirely in agreement with the judgement of the audience in that this is high-quality contemporary jazz played with verve, passion, and great integrity.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
