Jazz Articles about RED Trio

About RED Trio

Album Review

RED Trio & John Butcher: Summer Skyshift

Read "Summer Skyshift" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
August 18, 2016

It was the release of Empire (No Business, 2011) that constituted the point at which many people first began to pay attention to the Portuguese Red Trio. That collaboration with English saxophonist John Butcher featured on several year end lists. It paved the way for a series of further alliances, documented on disc with trumpeter Nate Wooley and vibraphonist Mattias Ståhl, as well as other albums by the core trio. With Summer Skyshift, the band has come full circle as ...

Album Review

RED Trio and Mattias Ståhl: North And The Red Stream

Read "North And The Red Stream" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
November 18, 2014

On their fifth album, Swedish vibraphonist Mattias Ståhl joins the Portuguese Red Trio as a guest. He's the latest in a sequence which includes alliances with saxophonist John Butcher and trumpeter Nate Wooley on disc, and reedman Ken Vandermark in performance. The product, North And The Red Stream, comprises three collective improvisations recorded at the VDU Jazz Festival in the Lithuanian city of Kaunas in 2013. Each arises from an impromptu give and take, negotiated on the fly, as the ...

Album Review

RED Trio: Rebento

by John Sharpe
December 3, 2013

Piano trios which accentuate the abstract facets of the format have become increasingly widespread in recent years, although boasting a legacy which stretches back to the pioneering outfits of British pianist Howard Riley in the late 1960s with bassist Barry Guy. Foremost among the current roll call, which includes Frenchwoman Eve Risser, Spaniard Agusti Fernandez, and the New York City-based Dawn of Midi, stands Portugal's Red Trio. Its fourth outing Rebento, issued as an LP containing three collectively birthed tracks ...

Album Review

RED Trio + John Butcher: Empire

by John Sharpe
January 27, 2012

By inviting English saxophonist John Butcher to join them in a Lisbon studio, the Portuguese Red Trio executed a stroke of genius. Together they stretch pianist Bill Evans' democratic ethos to its logical conclusion: no-one leads, no-one follows, but paradoxically all four move as one, exploring timbre and mood across three collectively improvised cuts. The threesome's eponymous 2010 Clean Feed debut garnered many critical plaudits and the augmented follow-up looks destined to achieve the same result. Such collaborations are not ...

Album Review

RED Trio + John Butcher: Empire

by John Eyles
October 24, 2011

It is an interesting comment on the state of improvised music across Europe that Empire is performed by a Portuguese trio joined by an English saxophonist, released on a Lithuanian record label, pressed in Germany. Studio-recorded in Lisbon in April 2010, Empire has been released on 12" vinyl in a limited edition, housed in a very appealing sleeve. The LP format provides full, rich sound that allows each note of every player to be heard clearly and distinctly.