ECM Changing Places

Amazon.co.uk Changing Places is the 2003 debut from the Tord Gustavsen Trio, a beautifully integrated and deeply lyrical Norwegian piano, bass and drums group. Over the years, a good deal of the wide-ranging music that has been recorded for ECM has been distinguished by what could be called a limpid quality of spacious phrasing or breathing--a quality as evident in matters of arrangement as in individual touch. In this regard, Changing Places is exemplary: a classic example of the many potentialities still to be exploited within the post-Bill Evans tradition. Nothing is forced, or rushed: a variety of quietly memorable, essentially poetic themes unfold, every one of them caressed rather than clipped by pianist Gustavsen. The medium-slow tempo that predominates elicits a subtly shaded range of diversely turned accompaniment from Johnsen and Vespestad. If you haven't heard the quietly but purposefully reflective Tord Gustavsen trio before, don't hesitate: this is superb stuff. --Michael Tucker Product Description Introducing a new piano trio from Norway. Tord Gustavsens young group, already making waves in the Far North where Changing Places has soared into the pop charts is telling new stories within the framework of the jazz tradition. This is music that sings, at once gentle and robust. The songs Gustavsen writes sound like standards-in-the-making: lyrical, immediately memorable songs, songs of an appealing freshness, yet sophisticated in their involvement with the melodic line. And the trio improvises, with flair and originality, inside their structures.