Grammy Award winning composer, saxophonist, and producer Joe Lovano made his ECM debut in 2019 with Trio Tapestry, featuring pianist Marilyn Crispell and Carmen Castaldi on drums. “The intensity comes not from ferocity but from depth of feeling,” wrote the BBC Music Magazine.
Lovano reunited with two of the finest improvisers in the field on 2021’s Garden of Expression. Crispell and Castaldi lent their sensitivity and attuned instincts to this set of eight Lovano originals, soaring over expansive, out-of-tempo soundscapes akin to those of the previous album. It’s a language of lyrical melody and open space, with rich, unfolding harmony from the piano and sparse texture and flow from the drums and cymbals—not to mention the gongs that Lovano introduces.
The third album from Joe Lovano’s Trio Tapestry finds the group continuing to extend its spacious and lyrical approach, with deep listening and intense focus. “Our Daily Bread is fueled by the rhythm spirit of expression that projects the mysterious world of music that lies ahead,” says master saxophonist Lovano in his liner note and these elegantly fluid pieces and free-floating ballads indeed feel like songs of the soul. Marilyn Crispell is the optimal pianist for this music, orchestrating it as it unfolds with a sensibility attuned to both contemporary chamber music and post-Coltrane improvising. Drummer Carmen Castaldi, a Lovano associate since teenage years, embellishes the music with his own poetic touch on cymbals and, like Joe himself, draws blossoming resonances from gongs.
Longtime collaborators in various projects over the years, each member of the trio is a pillar in their respective industries: Lovano is a titan of jazz saxophone, The Guardian calls Marilyn Crispell “one of the most highly regarded pianists at the sharp end of contemporary jazz,” and Castaldi is a superb percussionist in the continuing legacy of Paul Motion. With innovative new compositions Lovano calls, “some of the most intimate, personal music” he’s recorded thus far. On stage, the trio unfurls a tapestry of modal expressions interwoven with shimmering saxophone, passionate spirituality in the piano, and a range of exceptional percussive accents.