Jazz Articles

Neil Cowley Trio: Spacebound Apes

by Phil Barnes
September 14, 2016

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 ...

Neal Cowley Trio: Displaced

by Budd Kopman
June 15, 2007

The short story of Neil Cowley is that he was a child prodigy performing Shostakovich at the age of ten, became enormously successful in the pop, soul and funk world, and then emerged from an electronics-induced existential crisis to lead a predominately acoustic, and very hot jazz trio. If one scored points for pure energy, then Cowley would win by a mile, but Displaced has much more going for it than that. However, comparisons do help relay ...

The Neil Cowley Trio: Displaced

by John Kelman
March 19, 2007

It's rare to hear a new group create a sound so unique from the get-go that antecedents are rendered irrelevant. British pianist Neil Cowley's trio is on the verge of something very significant with Diplaced. More forceful than EST but less clunky than The Bad Plus, the Neil Cowley Trio has plenty to appeal to fans of these more youthful and, for the moment, better-known alternatives to the mainstream piano trio.

A talented child prodigy who performed classical concertos at ...