The Triangle

“The Triangle” referred to by Arild Andersen in the title of his 15th album as a leader for ECM is one that could be formed by drawing lines on the map to connect Oslo, Athens and London - home bases for the three principals here, musicians who between them pool a great deal of information and channel it into a “European” jazz of their own making.

Much has been written in recent seasons about the relative merits of improvising on either side of the Atlantic, and much that Norwegian bassist Andersen would not subscribe to. Although often credited as one of the originators of a ‘Nordic’ jazz sensibility, Andersen’s own bands have been international for decades, and – way back in the early 70s - his muscular playing was toughened by working with American jazz giants from Johnny Griffin to Sam Rivers. Similarly, British drummer John Marshall acquired early recognition propelling prototypes of European jazz/rock including Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated, Nucleus and the Soft Machine, yet the fundamental rhythmic impetus behind his work was inevitably ‘American’, and Marshall was proud to have studied with Philly Joe Jones.

In Andersen’s current trio, however, geographical influences at play are subtly different. A central role is played by Vassilis Tsabropoulos, a Greek classical pianist who came late to jazz, and who began to improvise only while a student at the Juilliard school. His phrasing and touch are untypical for a jazz player.

Jazz improvisers of course have long looked to ‘classical’ composition to expand their timbral and harmonic palettes, but when a classical pianist writes an arrangement of Ravel for jazz group – as happens on “Pavane” here - we are entering uncharted idiomatic territory. Tsabropoulos is composer of five of the nine pieces on “The Triangle”, all of which seem to cast the ‘piano trio’ genre in another light. As do his contributions to Andersen’s three pieces and the collective improvisation “European Triangle”.

Andersen met Tsabropoulos in Athens in 1996 when both were playing in Greece in diverse combinations with Markus Stockhausen. “What struck me straight away was the fact that his exceptional classical technique never gets in the way of his jazz playing. And I also liked the fact that his improvising is generally not chordally-based. He’s more often playing independent lines in the left hand.”

The trio made its debut four years ago with “Achirana” (ECM 1728), and both the disc itself (Tsabropoulos’s very first jazz recording) and the touring around its release drew much press attention. “Tsabropoulos has very little jazz timing in his phrasing, “Alyn Shipton noted in a concert review for The Times, “but his delicate lines, built of four or five note motifs take all their jazz feeling from the setting, with Andersen’s huge, warm bass tone and Marshall’s go-for-broke drumming adding the right ambience.”

“Achirana”, wrote Ian Carr in the BBC Music Magazine, “contains one element completely new to my experience. Tsabropoulos, a protégé of Vladimir Ashkenazy, is the first classical pianist I've ever heard who can play jazz with real understanding and great imagination… This trio of virtuosi never over-plays, and the album is beautifully recorded. It's an object lesson in artistry.”