Bernardo Sassetti Trio 2 - Ascent (2005)

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Bernardo Sassetti Trio 2 - Ascent (2005)

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The piano trio, wrought with as much cookie-cutter example as it is, also seems readily available for a considerable amount of reinvention. Groups like the Paul Bley Trio of the ‘60s and ‘70s found an expansive freedom and tonally ambiguous interplay around pastoral ballads and jagged, cross-rhythmic minefields, while Mal Waldron’s trios of the same period centered on straight-shooting and somewhat minimal "groove" anthems. Others like Howard Riley sought to break down the Evans-Jarrett mold by embracing its possibilities and then shattering it with electro-acoustics and free improvisation. Portuguese pianist and composer Bernardo Sassetti falls somewhere in between these many poles, but mostly on the side of a subtle expansion of an already well-worked-over aesthetic.

Ascent, Sassetti’s third outing for Clean Feed, finds the pianist joined by two separate trios – his usual group with bassist Carlos Barretto and drummer Alexander Frazão, as well as a more unusual combination with vibraphonist Jean-François Lezé and cellist Ajda Zupancic (see the dance-themed and pointillist centerpiece “Reflexos” for stunning use of this instrumentation). Sassetti’s career as a composer of film music was the primary impetus for this session, which includes three chamber pieces culled from the soundtrack to Margarida Cardoso’s A Costa dos Murmúridos, as well as the title track, a dedication to director José Álvaro Morais. Indeed, “Do Silêncio / Revelação,” with cello and vibes, is a static and evocative pastoral (the rainy window photos on the cover say it all) that sets a mood of introspective melancholia, setting the stage without developing any particular direction. “De um Instante a Outro” is a major indication of weightiness in the proceedings, a minimalist ringing right-hand coda segueing into a massive left-hand vamp, the crystalline arrangement of Philip Glass-like figures breaking down into scrapes of strings and muted plucks as tense interplay between the leader and Barretto and Frazão open the proceedings considerably. The balance between rounded and rather hooky tonal segments and more atonal improvisation is interesting, and reminiscent of Howard Riley’s work on the CBS LPs Angle and The Day Will Come (1969 and 1970), or Burton Greene’s trio work on ESP (On Tour, 1966).

Minimalism is probably as great an informant on Sassetti’s methods as the lineage of post-‘60s piano trios; brief arpeggiated runs become strings of single, isolated and fully-formed notes or the multiple faces of a geometric image. Simple figures are repeated and gradually added to, as in “Ascent” with its underpinning of pedal-actuated resonance and subtle bass thrum filling out its clambering cells. Of course, there is no shame in the fact that repetition can easily become an anthemic hook, and Sassetti knows how to use this angle in his music tastefully – see the aforementioned “De um Instante” and its rich, full ensemble companion “Como quem Diz.” For sure, trios like the Bad Plus and the Brad Meldhau Trio get much attention for their use of the pop repertoire, but Sassetti’s accessibility is both evocative and vigorously played out through his own curious muse. Let us hope that Ascent is indeed an apt title. clifford at bagatellen.com