Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Samo Salamon Bassless Trio: Unity

2

Samo Salamon Bassless Trio: Unity

By

View read count
For a long time, Slovenian guitarist and composer, Samo Salamon, has pursued a particular path. His signature format has become the bassless trio and he has continued to find new possibilities in this relatively rare setting. The latest incarnation of the bassless trio consists of Salamon together with American powerhouse-drummer John Hollenbeck and the sophisticated British saxophonist Julian Argüelles.

Unity finds Salamon in his usual eclectic mood. He is not afraid of distorted outbursts, as evidenced by the explosions on "Drop the D" and "Soundgarden," but he also creates quiet soundscapes and clear melodic lines.

Hollenbeck brings his propulsive energy to the proceedings, but is subdued and coloristic as well. Thus, the epic composition "Kei's Venice" ends with quiet rustling sounds and on "Moonless" he adds a glockenspiel interlude.

Followers of Salamon will recognize some of his old and recent signature compositions, including "Asking for a Break," "Moonless," "Seagulls in Maine" and "Kei's Secret." His new band members explore the tunes with zest and conviction and Unity is another worthy effort from Salamon. However, it would also be interesting to hear Salamon explore other formats again, like he did with Orchestrology (KGOSF Records, 2014), his recording with strings, and Ives (Samo Records, 2014), his meeting with two other guitarists: Manu Codjia and Mikkel Ploug.

Track Listing

Asking For a Break; Dawn; Kei's Venice; Holla Back; Soundgarden; Moonless; Seagulls In Maine; Drop the D; Pif; Kei's Secret.

Personnel

Julian Argüelles: tenor & soprano sax; Samo Salamon: guitar; John Hollenbeck: drums.

Album information

Title: Unity | Year Released: 2016 | Record Label: Samo Records

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Tramonto
John Taylor
Ki
Natsuki Tamura / Satoko Fujii
Duality Pt: 02
Dom Franks' Strayhorn
The Sound of Raspberry
Tatsuya Yoshida / Martín Escalante

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.