Twin Talk: Delights

If you are familiar with "Born in Chicago" by the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, a song later covered by the Blues Brothers and the Pixies, you know the lyrics: "I was born in Chicago at nineteen and forty-one / Well, my father told me / Son, you had better get a gun." Later, the song offers a different kind of wisdom: "Well, now rules are alright / If there's someone left to play the game."

In the 21st century, there are still someones left to play in Chicago. Twin Talk is one of them. The trio of tenor saxophonist Dustin Laurenzi, bassist Katie Ernst and drummer Andrew Green has been playing together for 15 years. Delights, their fifth studio album, follows a live recording released in 2024. With each release, the trio has become a tighter working unit, further blurring the distinction between composition and improvisation.

The album opens with the banger "Red Cent," Laurenzi's growling tenor meeting a heavy rhythmic pulse from Ernst and Green. Elsewhere, as on "Shanty" and "Northwest," the trio demonstrates that it can walk softly while still wielding a big stick. Ernst's wordless vocals on the latter add another dimension, transforming the piece into something like a universal remedy for whatever might ail you.

Twin Talk is not a tenor trio in the traditional sense. Although the instrumentation (saxophone, bass and drums) might suggest a familiar jazz configuration, the group is better understood as an equilateral triangle, with each musician contributing an equal side to the whole. The intricate shifting patterns of "Both And" make this especially apparent. Laurenzi, Ernst and Green continually exchange roles, each moving the music forward while leaving enough space for the others to respond. No one is simply accompanying anyone else.

"Fifths" offers a different kind of demonstration. The trio begins with just a handful of notes, allowing the music to unfold gradually as an open-ended meditation. Ernst's wordless singing eventually returns, accompanied by the distant memory of cymbals. It is a remarkable example of how much Twin Talk can accomplish with very little material.

The trio has also carefully sequenced Delights, allowing the music to flow naturally from its opening burst of energy to the final composition, "Similar Grit." Here, the band settles into an elegant, almost ultra-soothing delivery, bringing the album to a quiet close.

After 15 years together, Twin Talk has learned that the strongest rules are sometimes the ones you do not hear. Delights succeeds because the three musicians trust one another enough to let the music breathe, shift and surprise. The game, it seems, is still being played and Twin Talk knows how to play it together.