Bévort 3: A Cup of Joe

Tributes to jazz's most celebrated figures often take the form of interpretations of their work. Not so with Danish saxophonist and composer Pernille Bévort, who raises her cup to tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson on eight original tunes. Henderson's So Near So Far: Musings for Miles (Verve Records, 1993) is one of Bévort's touchstone album picks, and while the Dane is no Henderson clone, she shares some of his stylistic traits. Chief among these are Bévort's rhythmic agility and an inventive streak that makes each of her solos a journey into the unknown.

Since Trio Temptations (Gateway Music, 2014), Bévort has established a keen musical understanding with bassist Morten Ankarfeldt and drummer Espen Laub von Lillienskjold. Subsequent Bévort 3 albums, On Fire (Gateway Music, 2021) and Northbound (Gateway Music, 2024), have further cemented their chemistry. As linear and conventional in some respects as Bévort's compositions are, there remains a vibrant improvisational edge to all three musicians' play on this fine platter.

Bévort's trademark melodic heads serve as launching pads for collective improvisation, with bass ostinatos and vamps also combining to place these compositions in a jazz lineage that far precedes even Henderson. Yet as familiar as Bévort's grammar may be, her sound is very much her own—no small feat in itself. Lyrical always, a faint melancholy shadows her playing. This blue tinge surfaces on the noirish "Will it Never End," and on the quietly brooding "Ballad for Dreamers," where an Ankarfeldt phrase is picked up and embellished by Bévort—like old friends finishing each other's sentences.

That drums and bass start as one on the lively "Simplicity," or that all three musicians hit the ground running simultaneously on the knotty "Caught In The Act," only underlines the trio's tight dynamic. In such a stripped-back setting, there is personal space aplenty; Ankarfeldt solos lyrically on the rhythmically lithe "Speak up—where Bévort loops a second saxophone line to mine deeper textures—and on "Cup of Joe." Vamps on several tunes unleash von Lillienskjold, an endlessly arresting time-keeper. Enjoyable as these solo windows are, they are not nearly as revealing of the intricacies and complexities at play as when the trio is locked in three-way conversation.

It is in these trio passages where the meat and drink are served up, with Bévort responding to the open-ended rhythmic play with verve. Even on slower pieces, the saxophonist displays a focused intensity. From tumbling post-bop lines on "Simplicity" and "It's a Puzzle," to the fluttering introspection of "Skamlingen," Bévort's play is never less than compelling.

Another highly satisfying set from Bévort 3—one of contemporary jazz's hippest chordless trios. This is a stirring homage to Joe Henderson that swings hard and simmers beautifully.