Tresbass

A really bizarre and intriguing trio. I'm assuming that the band name is pronounced "traybass" as in, three-bass, and as limiting as that may seem, they get a lot of mileage out of the combination. (Okay, so it's not strictly three basses all the time!)

The lead tune is a unison riff which becomes a tricky fast counterpoint, and then spreads out into trio improvising. The next is a short tone poem, very soft and fluffy, and then wešre off into jazzy sounding stuff in tune three. I was reminded of Braxton quite a bit upon first listening, but now I'm really getting into the Sound of these three. The electric bassist has some nice odd-sounding techniques up his sleeve. Weird pops and buzzes. To tell the truth, I'm not always sure how much of this is composed and how much improvised, but it doesn't matter.

At times it is sounding very european 1940s jazz, nostalgic feel of wartime romaticism. These guys get around quite a bit. The saxist has a tendency to start lines with a normal tone when soloing or "Testifying", and then quickly spazzing into freaky squeals and harmonics. 

For the most part, the unison/counterpoint/improv sequence is in evidence, all nifty little figures and swing. The duo for electric and acoustic bass is nice, pleasantly quiet and melodic.

And one piece late in the disc sounds like it belongs on ECM. It's almost a pop song compared to the rest of the cd.