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Independent music since 1986.
Independent music since 1986.
404: CHRIS SPEED TRIO. Despite Obstacles

404: CHRIS SPEED TRIO. Despite Obstacles

Intakt Recording #404 / 2023

Chris Speed: Tenor Saxophone
Clarinet Chris Tordini: Acoustic Bass
Dave King: Drums

Recorded April 28, and July 24, 2022, at Brooklyn Recording, New York.

CHF 12.00 - CHF 30.00
CHF 30.00
CHF 12.00 - CHF 30.00
CHF 30.00
Format: Compact Disc
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Chris Speed’s superb trio with bassist Chris Tordini and drummer Dave King continues to write its band history with Despite Obstacles, their third album on Intakt Records. Releasing ten years after their debut album, Despite Obstacles is a testament to the band’s continued vitality. Speed, a recent member of the newly arranged The Bad Plus where he is reunited with Dave King in another working band, explains the constitutive impetus for this trio: “The initial idea for this trio was to play more swing-based music, to stay in a jazz-trio world.” and Kevin Whitehead adds in the liner notes: “Some Saxophoneophonists use trios to stretch way out. Chris Speed has other ideas. ‘I gravitate to getting to the point - featuring the song. I love to explore and open things up but there needs to be a directness as well.’ ”

Album Credits

Cover art and graphic design: Jonas Schoder
Liner notes: Kevin Whitehead
Photos: Cedric Pilard

All compositions by Chris Speed (keopolo music BMI). Recorded April 28, and July 24, 2022, at Brooklyn Recording, NYC, by Andy Taub. Mixed in September 2022 by Brett Bullion. Mastered in December 2022 by Huntley Miller. Produced by Chris Speed and Intakt Records. Published by Intakt Records.

Customer Reviews

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P
Peter Margasak
Nowhere Street

Year after year saxophonist Chris Speed is a model of craftsmanship and carefully sculpted expression. He’s honed a gorgeous sound on tenor saxophone, adapting the silken generosity of Lester Young with a thoroughly modern conception, both harmonically and in terms of ensemble sound. Together with drummer Dave King and bassist Christ Tordini he’s a stunning sound sculptor, spinning narratives that always avoid sharp edges and sudden turns even if they are underpinned by delicious ambiguity. His tune “Sunset Park in July,” a patient, heartfelt expression for the titular New York hood written from his adapted Los Angeles home was one of the most beautiful things I heard all year, but since it’s not streaming you could a lot worse than checking out his limber “Uncomfortable Truths,” bounding over kit-spread chatter and warm, woody double stops.

P
Peter Margasak
Nowhere Street

Year after year saxophonist Chris Speed is a model of craftsmanship and carefully sculpted expression. He’s honed a gorgeous sound on tenor saxophone, adapting the silken generosity of Lester Young with a thoroughly modern conception, both harmonically and in terms of ensemble sound. Together with drummer Dave King and bassist Christ Tordini he’s a stunning sound sculptor, spinning narratives that always avoid sharp edges and sudden turns even if they are underpinned by delicious ambiguity. His tune “Sunset Park in July,” a patient, heartfelt expression for the titular New York hood written from his adapted Los Angeles home was one of the most beautiful things I heard all year, but since it’s not streaming you could a lot worse than checking out his limber “Uncomfortable Truths,” bounding over kit-spread chatter and warm, woody double stops.

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Reviews in Other Languages

G
Guy Peters
Jazz'N'More Magazine

Derde album intussen voor het trio van Chris
Speed met bassist Chris
Tordini en drummer
Dave King, die intussen ook een maat is bij The Bad Plus. Rietblazer
Speed blijft intussen wel gewoon zichzelf, met die droge, lichtjes verkouden tenorsaklank en die afwisseling van schijnbaar achteloos rondgestrooide halve
melodieën en slingerende lijnen die ter plekke bedacht lijken, maar toch uit de koker van de leider komen. Tordini en King hebben een vergelijkbare attitude: deze interactie voelt aan alsof de muzikanten bovenal een ontspannen, ongeforceerde
interactie opzoeken.

G
Guy Peters
Jazz'N'More Magazine

Derde album intussen voor het trio van Chris
Speed met bassist Chris
Tordini en drummer
Dave King, die intussen ook een maat is bij The Bad Plus. Rietblazer
Speed blijft intussen wel gewoon zichzelf, met die droge, lichtjes verkouden tenorsaklank en die afwisseling van schijnbaar achteloos rondgestrooide halve
melodieën en slingerende lijnen die ter plekke bedacht lijken, maar toch uit de koker van de leider komen. Tordini en King hebben een vergelijkbare attitude: deze interactie voelt aan alsof de muzikanten bovenal een ontspannen, ongeforceerde
interactie opzoeken.

User picture
G
Guy Peters
Jazz'N'More Magazine

Derde album intussen voor het trio van Chris
Speed met bassist Chris
Tordini en drummer
Dave King, die intussen ook een maat is bij The Bad Plus. Rietblazer
Speed blijft intussen wel gewoon zichzelf, met die droge, lichtjes verkouden tenorsaklank en die afwisseling van schijnbaar achteloos rondgestrooide halve
melodieën en slingerende lijnen die ter plekke bedacht lijken, maar toch uit de koker van de leider komen. Tordini en King hebben een vergelijkbare attitude: deze interactie voelt aan alsof de muzikanten bovenal een ontspannen, ongeforceerde
interactie opzoeken.

User picture
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