Aengus Hackett Trio: Aengus Hackett Trio

It was surely a matter of time before Aengus Hackett got around to a contemporary jazz trio recording. The Galway guitarist has been a regular on the Irish jazz scene since graduating from the Conservatory of Amsterdam where he studied with Jesse van Ruller. But like many of his contemporaries, jazz is only one facet of his music making. Whether doubling as an electronica producer, intertwining Irish and Turkish folk music with singer Sanem Kalfa, or embracing anything from gamelan to post-rock, Hackett is nothing if not diverse. With drummer Matthew Jacobson and double bassist Derek Whyte, Hackett leads the way on a program of all- originals of predominantly straight-ahead jazz, edged by more experimental forays.

The trio's recorded debut it may be, but the prevailing sense throughout these eleven tracks is of three musicians who are well attuned to each other, rhythmically especially, but also in their more free-spirited interplay, as on the episodic "Empanada Galactica," the album's longest cut at just under nine minutes. Here, around the midway point, Hackett's pedals flip his clear-toned, articulate playing into heady psychedelic overdrive. Such outré excursions, however, are rare. Pedal-induced guitar fuzz does make an entrance on "Nintendo Wars," but in the main, Hackett's sprightly chordal progressions and elegant solos present him as a card-carrying member of the straight-ahead jazz brigade.

Hackett leans slightly towards John Scofield on melodically bright fare like the rock-tinged "Ximenyr" and the swinging "See The Children Play," and basks in Bill Frisell-esque sonic manipulation on "Gerrymandering," where dreamy soundscapes dissolve into the warped time of seemingly detuned strings. But any similarities—real or imagined—to two of contemporary guitar's most celebrated figures are passing; in essence, Hackett commands his own sound, and the album is all the more persuasive for it. His unhurried lyricism shines on the brushes-steered ballad "Caphalopod," and on the guitar-and-bass duet "Dusk." In fact, Hackett is most persuasive when not striving for effect(s).

Jacobson is in typically robust form, ever-responsive, ever-probing. He may well be the most in-demand drummer in Ireland, and for good reason. Whyte too, is impressive, his lithe rhythmic lines, like Jacobson's, driving the music forward. Two of the bassist's solos, on "Ximenyr" and on the atmospheric "The Ineffable" provide album highlights.

This promising debut from Aengus Hackett Trio was recorded in June 2021, so it might be reasonable to hope for a follow-up in the not-too-distant future. That sort of momentum could only be beneficial for the trio's trajectory.