Andy Sheppard/Michel Benita/Sebastian Rochford
Trio Libero
(ECM)
The sheer breadth of saxophonist Andy Sheppard's work over the past 25 years, ranging from his 200-strong Saxophone Massive to duets with classical pianist Joanna MacGregor and dates with jazz master Gil Evans, Indian violinist L Shankar and Northumbrian piper Kathryn Tickell, almost alone makes his next step intriguing. And this new trio certainly runs to form. The music's almost freely improvised, very understated, elegant, often folksong-like and atmospheric, and it backs up the assertion that, with Algerian-born bassist Michel Benita and Aberdeen's own Sebastian Rochford (drums), Sheppard is working in a group of three melody players. Nowhere is this clearer than on the one, beautifully conversational jazz standard, I'm Always Chasing Rainbows, or on the wittily interactive Slip Duty, where Rochford restakes his claim as surely the most musical of drummers. A slow grower rather than an album that instantly socks the listener between the eyes with virtuosic blowing, Trio Libero reveals more charms and more depth of interest with every play.
Rob Adams
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article