Curios

The Other Place Edition ***

Curios - leader Tom Cawley (piano), Sam Burgess (bass) and Joshua Blackmore (drums) – have forged a deserved reputation as one the best trios on the British jazz scene.

Collectively they have a brilliant, almost quixotic ability to take the music in whatever direction they wish, often, as here, from the slenderest of bases. It's exemplified in the complex, often angular variations of Pursuitand the rhythmic fluidity of Impure, both of which feature aggressively inventive trio dialogue and dazzling work by Cawley, in particular. Another side to them – and Cawley – is in the pensive, gentle explorations of Plea, Beliefand the song-like, Mediterranean warmth of Pure, while both sides come together in The Swan. What comes across most of all, though, is the feel of a fine trio savouring its capacity for taking chances, and more often than not pulling it off.

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