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Neil Cowley Trio: Entity
by Chris May
British pianist Neil Cowley put his trio on hold in 2017 to go solo. Entity marks the return of the group, which is completed by bassist Rex Horan and drummer Evan Jenkins. This is their eighth album since 2006, and the fourth with Horan in the lineup (Jenkins has been present from the start). The press materials accompanying the album include a statement from Cowley about the need for “human push back" against the potentially malign aspects of digital technology, ...
Continue ReadingNeil Cowley Trio: Spacebound Apes
by Phil Barnes
The impact of ambition and competitiveness in a creative pursuit can be double edged. As a spur to action, an attempt to fulfil potential it is surely a positive--think of the mutual admiration and competition between say Brian Wilson and Paul McCartney in the mid-1960s for example. But there are times when a competitive nature can be destructive--a need always to be “right," to force your ill-considered views on others irrespective of the facts and, frankly, to be a bit ...
Continue ReadingNeil Cowley Trio: Touch and Flee
by Vic Albani
Benedetto dalla “sacra incisione" della Naim britannica (titolare di uno dei grandi saperi della filosofia high-end nel campo dell'alta fedeltà), ecco il nuovo lavoro di Neil Cowley con il suo fedele trio. Vale a dire un altro di quei grandi nomi della musica britannica moderna, in concreto misconosciuto al di fuori dell'isola per eccellenza. Da anni però, chi è un po' più attento e riesce a seguire e tenersi aggiornato sulle vicende della musica della terra d'Albione, riconosce il nome ...
Continue ReadingNeil Cowley Trio: The Face of Mount Molehill
by AAJ Italy Staff
Non so se si possa parlare - o meglio se sia utile parlare - di un vero e proprio “filone" transnazionale (dalla Svezia degli E.S.T. agli Stati Uniti dei Bad Plus, fatti tutti i dovuti distinguo espressivi) di piano trio di matrice ritmica rock, ma sarà certamente utile a farsi capire inquadrare la musica del trio di Neil Cowley in questo ambito che riesce al tempo stesso a far storcere il naso a molti appassionati e a accattivarsi l'ascolto di ...
Continue ReadingNeil Cowley Trio: The Face of Mount Molehill
by Dave Sumner
Neil Cowley TrioThe Face of Mount MolehillNaim2012The danger of composing tunes with catchy hooks and enthusiastic infusions of a string ensemble for a jazz album is that it gets dismissed as gussied up pop music; not jazz, just jazzy. Either unaware or unconcerned with the risk, pianist Neil Cowley presents a series of warm tunes that wear their heart on their sleeve. It's not the first time that unguarded sincerity overcame risk ...
Continue ReadingNeil Cowley Trio: Radio Silence
by Glenn Astarita
With this British trio's third album--and perhaps its finest hour to date--a heartwarming assault on the customary jazz piano trio format surges onward. Here, pianist Neil Cowley merges rock, pop sentiment and mainstream jazz into a stylistic enterprise, aided by a highly rhythmic undercurrent. Cowley injects a sense of antiquity into the program, via his slightly rustic sounding piano, shaded with a honky-tonk, full-bodied tone. It's an uncanny dimension that casts an earthy keynote into the grand schema, while enhancing ...
Continue ReadingNeil Cowley Trio: Radio Silence
by Karl Ackermann
In recent years, a number of piano trios have done an admirable job filling the void left by the untimely passing of Esbjörn Svensson and, by consequence, his pioneering trio, e.s.t. The Tingvall Trio, more than most, along with Sebastian Liedke, Marcin Wasilewski and Colin Vallon, have all overseen efforts that encapsulate a similar style and spirit. Notably, these trios are all European-based, as is the UK's Neil Cowley Trio. Virtually unknown in the United States, Cowley's longstanding group has ...
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