Luke Stewart Silt Trio – Unknown Rivers (2024) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz]

Luke Stewart Silt Trio – Unknown Rivers (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 49:28 minutes | 569 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Pi Recordings

Unknown Rivers is bassist Luke Stewart’s debut for Pi Recordings. An omnipresent and galvanizing force on the music scene, Stewart is a leader or co-leader of such bands as Irreversible Entanglements, Exposure Quintet, Blacks’ Myths, Heart of the Ghost, and Remembrance Quintet. He is also among the most in-demand collaborators, having performed with the likes of David Murray, Nicole Mitchell, Moor Mother, Jaimie Branch, Nate Wooley, Ken Vandermark and countless others. Stewart is also a curator and presenter of multiple concert series in New York and Washington, D.C., a writer, activist, producer and D.J.

Featuring his long-running Silt Trio, with Brian Settles on tenor sax, and drummers Trae Crudup on four studio tracks and Chad Taylor on three live ones, Unknown Rivers sees the band pushing towards greater emphasis on rhythmic acuity, highlighting the different approaches to the music of the two drummers. Settles – a stalwart of the fertile Washington DC jazz scene – plays with a quiet intensity, possessing a sound that reminds of players from a distant past set against a modernist’s vocabulary. Stewart is the master of a deep, wide groove that cushions and propels, making every musical situation he finds himself in sound good. The Quietus has called the band “gripping… relies on subtlety and insinuation to register its uncanny power.” The Silt Trio is that magical juxtaposition of playing with raw spontaneity while maintaining the music’s intent and purpose.

Bassist and composer Luke Stewart is busy: he leads the free jazz group Exposure Quintet, is one-fifth of the collective Irreversible Entanglements, plays electric bass in the experimental rock duo Blacks’ Myths, and performs in several other groups as well. So, it’s a good thing Stewart finds time for his excellent Silt Trio: their 2022 release The Bottom impressed, and Unknown Rivers is a fine follow-up.

Drummer Trae Crudup—Stewart’s partner in Blacks’ Myths—appeared on Silt Trio’s initial release, 2020’s No Trespassing. Here, Crudup plays on the album’s four studio cuts, while Chad Taylor—who drums on The Bottom—plays on three live tracks.

Crudup and Stewart lay down an off-kilter groove on “Seek Whence” as tenor saxophonist Brian Settles riffs on the underlying pattern. His playing, full of subtle details, remains compelling throughout the piece; there is tension in his artful restraint.

“The Slip” opens with martial and funky drum rhythms. Stewart joins in with a deep, fat-toned bass line that he expands upon throughout the track. Settles spaces out stately sax runs, letting silences create anticipation.

The live portion of the album begins with Chad Taylor’s solo on “Amilcar,” where he dazzles with deft skitter and rumble. Stewart enters the rhythmic matrix with a descending bass pattern, and soon after Settles feels his way into the music. At times, his tenor playing evokes the warm lucidity of John Coltrane.

Stewart’s bass propels the uptempo title track. Taylor provides a steady pulse and inventive interjections as Settles mixes long-held notes, emotive phrases, and insistent riffing. The piece is a good example of this group’s appealing deployment of catchy, repetitive figures in a free jazz context. – Fred Cisterna

Tracklist:
1-01. Luke Stewart – Seek Whence (05:33)
1-02. Luke Stewart – Baba Doo Way (05:41)
1-03. Luke Stewart – You See? (07:49)
1-04. Luke Stewart – The Slip (04:41)
1-05. Luke Stewart – Amilcar (08:21)
1-06. Luke Stewart – Dudu (12:50)
1-07. Luke Stewart – Unknown Rivers (04:30)

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