Trio – Glenn Doig

When considering piano trios, I am constantly amazed by the contrasting approaches that pianists adopt. A few historical examples will suffice: Bud Powell’s high-speed bop flurries; Bill Evans’ introspective and lyrical outings; Keith Jarrett’s wholesale re-invention of jazz standards; or The Necks’ slow-morph improvisations. So varied are these approaches, it’s hard to imagine they all emanate from the same basic configuration: piano, bass, drums.

Glenn Doig, a Sydney pianist who studied with Mike Nock and Matt McMahon, has been playing around for the better part of two decades. It is a surprise, then, to register that Trio is his first album. For the session, he has gathered a top-notch trio, comprising bassist Brett Hirst and drummer Simon Barker.

So, where does his music fit? If I had to hazard, I’d align him with the Bill Evans school, emphasising lyricism, stately tempos, and melodic figures, foregrounded in dynamic, group interplay.

Doig’s music – all originals – is beautifully served by Hirst and Barker, especially the former, who imaginatively solos throughout, as if engaged in private conversation with Doig’s piano.

Highlights include ‘Solemnly Joyous’, which rests on an affecting, piano motif that summons Hirst’s gentle, roaming bass; and album closer ‘Passage’, conjured from a brief melodic refrain that plumbs resonant, fervent depths.

Overall, Doig prefers to work in miniature – not for him Jarrett’s fifteen-or-twenty-minute improvised codas – with the bulk of Trio’s eight tracks barely nudging the five-minute-mark. These pieces play out like synergetic conversations, simple and unadorned, constituting a rewarding contribution to the art of the piano trio.