Personnel: Dave Douglas (trumpet); Brad Schoeppach (guitar); Jim Black (drums).
Recorded at Sear Sound, New York, New York on December 21 & 22, 1993.
Personnel include: Dave Douglas ; Brad Shepik (guitar); Black Jim (drums).
One of the most innovative and active players on the contemporary jazz scene, trumpeter Dave Douglas has had his fingers in any number of musical pies. Of his many projects, the Tiny Bell Trio was among his first, and the group's 1994 debut previews the range of Douglas's compositional and performing talents. Joined by Jim Black on drums and Brad Schoeppach on guitar, Douglas draws primarily on the music of Eastern Europe and the Balkans here, incorporating elements of post-bop and free jazz along the way.
Douglas is known for his skills as a synthesist, bringing together a wide range of influences with a sophisticated sense of space, phrasing, and improvisatory technique. Schoeppach's playing, which sometimes sounds like Bill Frisell, sometimes like James Blood Ulmer, complements Douglas's complex lines nicely. Black's martial and parade-influenced drumming, offset by avant clatter, fills out the Trio's sound. The three players generate a high level of frenetic/lyrical interchange on each of these 12 tracks, which range from traditional Hungarian folk ("Czardas") to Kurt Weill ("The Drowned Girl") to Douglas's daring, passionate originals. THE TINY BELL TRIO gives compelling, early evidence of this trumpeter/composer's gifts.
