The Jazz Piano Trio
As regular readers know, I’m always on the lookout for new piano trios, as it is one of my favorite art forms.
The trio I’ll be writing below isn’t new to me, I already discovered them with their previous album, which was simply titled Reis/Demuth/Wiltgen and released on the French label Laborie Jazz.
Reis/Demuth/Wiltgen
The naming of the band isn’t very complicated to explain, as we have Michel Reis on piano, Marc Demuth on bass, and Paul Wiltgen on drums.
All three come from Luxembourg, the small place in the middle of Europe known to most people as a tax haven, and somehow next to Brussels and Strasbourg host to some of the EU institutions. Beyond those clichés it’s actually a beautiful little place.
I really liked their first debut album on Laborie, so I was very curious to hear their latest release, which came out some weeks ago in August.
Places In Between (Double Moon Records 2016)
So how do I like it? Well to be honest, I liked their previous album better, I found it more inspiring.
Don’t get me wrong, this is a well done jazz trio album. You can really feel that the three musicians are well connected, this isn’t some collection of stars just put together for one album.
So what’s my issue with it? I guess it’s probably the songs. All are “nice”, but I don’t know, they leave me hungry for more.
More of what? If only I knew. I guess this won’t be the most useful music review I’ve ever written, as I keep rambling without giving you anything concrete. There are nice moments, e.g. the melodic developments on Joule’s Last Glimpse, the light swing of The Story of You and Me, or the excellent drive of Paul Wiltgen on Shai.
And it is really hard to put my finger on it as there’s really nothing wrong with the album.
I’ll just leave it at that and recommend their 2013 album instead, and wait if the new album grows on me. It has happened before.
My rating: 3 stars (could eventually turn into 4 stars, let’s see) for Places In Between, and 4 stars for Reis/Demuth/Wiltgen.
You can download the former album here (Qobuz).
UPDATE Sep 10, 2017: It seems like Places In Between is now hard to find beyond the Itunes store.
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I tend to agree with your rating. The problem might also be that their first album was as good as it was, so our expectations could be too high. “I kind of heard it already, so what is next?”, is my feeling as well.
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Yes, that’s quite possible. Let’s see if it grows on me.
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