Jazz piano trios are in. Just think of the Scandinavian EST, the Tord Gustavsen Trio and the American The Bad Plus. These groups mix their jazz with pop and rock influences and give that mix a nice name, such as 'Nordic-Caribbean-gospel-bluesy' (Gustavsen). The British Neil Cowley Trio also came up with a nice one: 'Jazz-trance-neo-classical-funk-soul for shoegazers'. And there is also something in
… it. Many of the songs on Displaced have a nice drive, based on Richard Sadler's groovy double bass. Other songs, such as Degree In Intuition, have a trance-like structure. The album also includes some ballads, with subtle brushes by drummer Evan Jenkins and a nice spatial dub mix of How Do We Catch Up. Neil Cowley earned his spurs as a producer and keyboardist in various down-tempo groups such as Zero 7 and his own Fragile State. Displaced was released in 2006, but in July 2007 (once again) attracted attention by winning the BBC Jazz Award for best album. Rightly so. (HB)more
