Third Quartet is the third album by this rather astonishing group of musicians under guitarist and composer
John Abercrombie's leadership. His collaborators: drummer
Joey Baron, violinist
Mark Feldman, and bassist
Marc Johnson are all accomplished leaders in their own rights, but as they team with
Abercrombie, something unusual, unwieldy, and utterly transformative takes place.
Feldman is such a worthy foil for the guitarist. The call is the response in tunes like "Banshee" and "Wishing Bell," the counterpoint in "Tres," and the gorgeously simple harmonic extrapolations in "Number Nine," with its spacious and slippery melody, accent each man's greatest strength. For
Feldman it's in the ear. He doesn't simply follow
Abercrombie, he underscores him, he journeys from him and illumines his violin's particularly colorful tonalities in contrast to
Abercrombie's warm and buttery tone. The ensemble symbiosis is at its height on tunes like
Ornette Coleman's "Round Trip," which is begun by
Baron and followed by
Johnson, followed by
Abercrombie and then
Feldman. That said, the ensemble interplay near the end of tune, stretching
Coleman's lyric line to the breaking point, is almost breathtaking. The other cover here, following immediately after, is
Bill Evans' "Epilogue." Here, the sheer tenderness and emotion of
Evans' composition are evident from the moment
Abercrombie and
Feldman begin playing together.
Feldman's nearly modal approach to the actual head is startling at first, but the pacing, and
Abercrombie's trademark sparse phrasing, are where the genius that is
Evans' displays itself.
Abercrombie and
Feldman re-read the tune through its mode, and
Johnson's skeletal playing of the changes keeps its from being entirely spectral.
Baron's cymbal washes here are especially poignant. It feels more like an elegy, but there is no doubt that is its intention. This is a most welcome and beautiful addition to this particular group's musical language as well as their catalog. ~ Thom Jurek