Mark Pringle Trio, Jazz Bar, Edinburgh
Rob Adams THREE STARS
The piano trio, a format with a proud and crowded tradition in jazz, continues to flourish and given that it’s not the easiest of the small groups to find gigs for – not every venue on the circuit has a suitable instrument - it’s a tribute to the single-minded determination of the pianist-leaders that they succeed.
Mark Pringle is a young graduate of Birmingham Conservatoire and evidence of a player with his own approach was quickly forthcoming on his first visit to Edinburgh. Pringle has just released his first album, A Moveable Feast, featuring compositions for a twelve piece ensemble with strings and it’s possibly as a result of working with this larger group that his trio give each other quite a lot of room to manoeuvre.
It’s an attractive proposition with Pringle’s own pieces, including one written for his cat and another written for his brother, developing by stealth and items from the standards songbook such as Cole Porter’s Everything I Love and Hoagy Carmichael’s Stardust being allowed to breathe at an unhurried but swinging pace, in the case of the former, and at an unusually slow tempo for a set closer in the latter’s case.
Pringle’s a very thoughtful improviser with a clear sense of structure and a nice use of unexpected and effective dissonance at times and his bassist, James Banner and his drummer, Euan Palmer offer attentive support and understated energy. They already work well as a group, with Pringle’s own uptempo and swinging Figs and an imaginative arrangement of Carla Bley’s lovely, solemn Jesus Maria being particularly good examples of collective talent promising more to come.
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