Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Jeff Cosgrove/Frank Kimbrough/Martin Wind: Conversations With Owls

16

Jeff Cosgrove/Frank Kimbrough/Martin Wind: Conversations With Owls

By

View read count
Jeff Cosgrove/Frank Kimbrough/Martin Wind: Conversations With Owls
Owls are often seen or portrayed as the most sagacious of creatures, wisely holding sway on a branch and quietly gazing into the night. Images such as that readily appear in the mind as Conversations With Owls unfold.

In listening back to this music after the session, drummer Jeff Cosgrove was taken back to his days living near the Potomac River in West Virginia. While there, Cosgrove would often find inspiration in the activities of an owl perched in the trees in an old graveyard. The wisdom, power, grace, and self-possessed nature of the owl clearly made a mark on his psyche, for it's those characteristics that shine through on this album.

Conversations With Owls finds Cosgrove working with two vaunted figures—painterly pianist Frank Kimbrough and deep-thinking bassist Martin Wind. The resultant music is every bit as contemplative and absorbing as one might expect from such a combination of players. There are silvery sounds to admire ("The Owls"), tense and playful presentations ("Excitable Voices"), and deep and expansive takes on old chestnuts ("My Favorite Things"). There's darkness and uncertainty to be found, as Wind's spine-chilling arco work, Cosgrove's scampering brushes, and Kimbrough's embrace of chaos ("Forest Hunters") wreak havoc, but there's also pure beauty in the picture; Kimbrough's piano droplets twinkle through the speakers ("Stacks Of Stars") and the trio emphasizes the virtues of calmness and patience during an entrancing performance of a Gershwin classic ("I Loves You, Porgy").

Cosgrove's last collaborative trio date—Alternating Current (Self Produced, 2014)—was compelling because of the mercurial nature of the music and the danger that lurked around every corner. This one is even better because it's enthralling without the constant threat of danger. Sure, Cosgrove and company tussle and push past the boundaries of convention every now and then, even delivering a raucous sendoff where Kimbrough appears to briefly explore variations on "(I'm) Confessin' (That I Love You)" over a loose and jittery bed of rhythm ("The Shimmer"). But there are also slowly sweeping ballads and gentle musical embraces here. It's that balance between stylistic and emotional poles that helps to keep things interesting.

Track Listing

The Owls; Stacks Of Stars; I Loves You Porgy; Excitable Voices; Forest Hunters; My Favorite Things; The Shimmer.

Personnel

Jeff Cosgrove: drums; Frank Kimbrough: piano; Martin Wind: bass.

Album information

Title: Conversations With Owls | Year Released: 2015 | Record Label: Self Produced

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Tramonto
John Taylor
Ki
Natsuki Tamura / Satoko Fujii
Duality Pt: 02
Dom Franks' Strayhorn
The Sound of Raspberry
Tatsuya Yoshida / Martín Escalante

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.