About five years ago, I reviewed Free Hoops, the latest release by the Sylvie Courvoisier Trio. I also commented on a fine, pandemic-era livestream of the trio in concert at Roulette in New York.

>Pianist Courvoisier has been busy since then, releasing sterling duet recordings with the likes of Wadada Leo Smith (Angel Falls) and Mary Halvorson (Bone Bells). But the 57-year-old Swiss native is now back with the trio disc Éclats — Live in Europe, a session that features her partners of a dozen years, Drew Gress on bass and Kenny Wollesen on drums and “Wollesonics,” the latter a technique which, alongside the leader’s audible forays inside the piano, produces intriguing atmospheric moments.

The all-original Courvoisier pieces selected for Éclats were drawn from three live European performances in 2025. Most of the nine compositions have previously appeared on studio recordings, but the threesome’s interactive (and unpredictable) musicality continues to have its special virtues. The group’s ability to introduce shards of free playing into implied structures (and vice versa) is consistently intriguing—and satisfying.

“Big Steps Toward Silence” starts with a bit of agitation before the piano undertakes a series of pensive lopes. Gress is particularly impressive throughout this release, here dancing with the pianist, who at times supplies a quiet, lyrical center. A heavier pulse eventually inserts some drama, with a Wollesen solo elevating the interplay via start-and-stop episodes. A pervasive quality of searching underlies this composition, leading to a quiet finish.

“Just Twisted” is an avant-garde burner that walks you into an imaginary joint jumping with deconstructed rhythms and pianistic onslaughts. “Downward Dog” resonates with a simmering restlessness à la the late Chick Corea (a musician you may think of occasionally as you hear Courvoisier pick a melody apart). Wollesen’s solo caps off a risky/frisky piece that might have gone on a while longer.

“Éclats for Ornette” carries the free-bop flag into blues territory. Courvoisier has carefully studied the master. “Imprint Double” portends an eruption: Courvoisier mingles a down-and-dirty riff with splashes of high notes that hover above a Gress solo. The payoff is the arrival of a marching passage that treats the piece’s opening motif in a more swinging manner. Another important release from this brilliant, longstanding threesome.

https://artsfuse.org/328123/may-short-fuses-materia-critica-6//

Éclats - Live In Europe / Sylvie Courvoisier Trio
① Éclats - for Ornette ② Just Twisted ③ Requiem d'un songe ④ Imprint Double ⑤ South Side Rules ⑥ Big Steps Towards Silence ⑦ Free Hoops ⑧ Lulu's Dance ⑨ Downward Dog

Intakt Records CD 452

A live work from a Swiss-born New Yorker's American trio

The Courvoisier Trio, which has been documenting its achievements on record since the 2010s, presents recordings from three venues on their European tour in February 2025. On ①, an irregular theme gives way to a bass solo, with free-spirited piano and busy drums trading off in a kind of self-introduction. ② features a decisive unison phrase shared by all three; ③ reveals a surprisingly melodic side; ④ offers an engaging dialogue among the members anchored by the bass; and ⑤ sees arco bass acting as a catalyst — throughout, the intuitive interplay as the musicians develop the leader's compositions is deeply satisfying.

Sylvie Courvoisier has never been easy to pin down, which is exactly the point. The Lausanne-born pianist moved to New York City in 1998 and spent the next two-plus decades making herself indispensable to the downtown avant-garde, working alongside John Zorn, Evan Parker, Wadada Leo Smith, and Mark Feldman, among others. She received the Swiss Grand Prix Music and an American Academy of Arts and Letters Music Award in 2025, recognition that felt overdue rather than surprising. Her long-running piano trio with bassist Drew Gress and drummer Kenny Wollesen has been one of jazz's most formidable units for years. Éclats: Live in Europe, recorded during a February 2025 tour, makes a strong case that the group has never sounded better.

The opener, "Éclats -for Ornette," comes out swinging. Courvoisier does not genuflect at Ornette Coleman's altar so much as tear the door off it. "Just Twisted" is knotted and physical, a theme the trio seems to be assembling and dismantling in the same breath, a form of controlled chaos that never tips into self-indulgence. The pianist's circular and staggered bop maneuvers ride atop a rock-like riff, while Gress provides a steady undertow, leading to a complex rupture and a regenerative stream of ideas within the trio's engaging improvisations.

The album's emotional center settles around "Requiem d'un songe," featuring Courvoisier's brisk voicings and rapid post-bop bursts. Shifting currents eventually guide the band toward a voice that is striking in the way that unsettling things sometimes are. "Imprint Double" breaks that spell with a relentless, tumbling drive, blending rock grooves with boogie-woogie inflections, reflective passages, and generous doses of absorbing improvisation.

"Big Steps Towards Silence" is patient in a way that demands attention rather than rewarding distraction, unfolding as a dense three-way call-and-response exchange that converges toward near silence, followed by rising mini-motifs that alternate with quieter passages. Here, Wollesen steps forward with a series of polyrhythmic conversations, steering the band back to the primary melody. "Lulu's Dance" carries a stalking, muscular quality, guided by the pianist's imagery of climbing a ladder, accented by the rhythm section's sweeping sound sculptures and several false endings that return the group to the subtle state introduced at the outset.

Courvoisier has always played as if the stakes are high. Here, they feel even higher, and Gress and Wollesen meet her at every turn. This is a trio firing on all cylinders with no interest in easing up.

https://www.allaboutjazz.com/eclats-live-in-europe-sylvie-courvoisier-intakt-records

Sylvie Courvoisier has never been easy to pin down, which is exactly the point. The Lausanne-born pianist moved to New York City in 1998 and spent the next two-plus decades making herself indispensable to the downtown avant-garde, working alongside John Zorn, Evan Parker, Wadada Leo Smith, and Mark Feldman, among others. She received the Swiss Grand Prix Music and an American Academy of Arts and Letters Music Award in 2025, recognition that felt overdue rather than surprising. Her long-running piano trio with bassist Drew Gress and drummer Kenny Wollesen has been one of jazz's most formidable units for years. Éclats: Live in Europe, recorded during a February 2025 tour, makes a strong case that the group has never sounded better.

The opener, "Éclats -for Ornette," comes out swinging. Courvoisier does not genuflect at Ornette Coleman's altar so much as tear the door off it. "Just Twisted" is knotted and physical, a theme the trio seems to be assembling and dismantling in the same breath, a form of controlled chaos that never tips into self-indulgence. The pianist's circular and staggered bop maneuvers ride atop a rock-like riff, while Gress provides a steady undertow, leading to a complex rupture and a regenerative stream of ideas within the trio's engaging improvisations.

The album's emotional center settles around "Requiem d'un songe," featuring Courvoisier's brisk voicings and rapid post-bop bursts. Shifting currents eventually guide the band toward a voice that is striking in the way that unsettling things sometimes are. "Imprint Double" breaks that spell with a relentless, tumbling drive, blending rock grooves with boogie-woogie inflections, reflective passages, and generous doses of absorbing improvisation.

"Big Steps Towards Silence" is patient in a way that demands attention rather than rewarding distraction, unfolding as a dense three-way call-and-response exchange that converges toward near silence, followed by rising mini-motifs that alternate with quieter passages. Here, Wollesen steps forward with a series of polyrhythmic conversations, steering the band back to the primary melody. "Lulu's Dance" carries a stalking, muscular quality, guided by the pianist's imagery of climbing a ladder, accented by the rhythm section's sweeping sound sculptures and several false endings that return the group to the subtle state introduced at the outset.

Courvoisier has always played as if the stakes are high. Here, they feel even higher, and Gress and Wollesen meet her at every turn. This is a trio firing on all cylinders with no interest in easing up.

https://www.allaboutjazz.com/eclats-live-in-europe-sylvie-courvoisier-intakt-recordss

Den sveitsiske pianisten og komponisten Sylvie Courvoisier har vært en viktig stemme på den moderne jazzscenen i 20 år der hun, i hovedsak holder til i New York. Hun kommer opprinnelig fra Sveits, og ble nylig tildelt den prestisjetunge sveitsiske «Grand Prix Musik» for 2025. Hun har utgitt en rekke utmerkede plateutgivelser, senest soloalbumet To be Other-Wise og det flotte duoalbumet Angel Falls med trompeteren Wadada Leo Smith. Og nå topper hun det hele med et livealbum med sin trio med bassisten Drew Gress og trommeslageren Kenny Wollesen. Albumet, som ble spilt inn under en europaturné i februar 2025, presenterer selve essensen av denne fremragende trioen. Dette er den fjerde utgivelsen på trio, og etter å ha lyttet mye til de tre foregående, gledet jeg meg storligen til å høre de live.

Opptakene er gjort under JOE Festival i Essen i Tyskland, Festival Sons d’hiver i Ivry-sur-Sines i Frankrike og på Jazzclub Untherfart i Munchen i løpet av turneen i februar, og alle sporene er utmerket tatt opp og mikset, slik at det blir en helhet over platen som setter trioen helt i toppen av den moderne jazz-adelskalenderen.

Hun har gjestet Norge med trio tidligere, blant annet i 2022, da hun gjestet Vossa Jazz, den gang med Gress og med Tom Rainey på trommer (fordi Wollesen hadde blitt stoppet på en flyplass i Europa på grunn av problemer med pandemirestriksjonene).

Og å lytte til denne utgivelsen, blir som å høre en slags «best of» med trioen. For de ni komposisjonene, som alle er skrevet av Courvoisier, sammenfatter mye av det man har hørt med trioen tidligere. Og fra de åpner med «Éclats – for Ornette», til de avslutter med «Downward Dog», er dette en nesten himmelsk reise i utsøkt pianotriospill.

Dette er tre musikere som har spilt mye sammen, og som kjenner hverandres hver lille bevegelse. Det fører til at båse bass og trommer følger Courvoisiers alle bevegelser, fra det hardtsvingende og Ornette Colemanske i åpningen, via en slags videreføring av det Cecil Taylor holdt på med, til det roligere og vakre. Men det er Courvoisiers energiske og, tidvis, aggressive pianospill som gjør dette til en fantastisk opplevelse. Hun spinner rundt temaene som om det nesten dreier seg om liv og død. Hun har en enorm teknikk og en kreativitet i spillet som ofte kan savnes i dagens jazz.

Bass-spillet til Gress er akkurat der det skal være – hele vegen. Han må ha verdens største og mest lyttende ører, og Wollesens trommespill er kraftig og energisk med en rekke energiske «poengteringer» i spillet som gjør triospillet originalt og tøft.

Jeg har lyttet mye til disse tre musikerne, både i denne trioen og i andre sammenhenger. Men jeg fikk dessverre ikke hørt dem på Europa-turneen i 2025, og det er synd, for jeg er overbevist om at hver av konsertene på turneen må ha vært store opplevelser. Men nå har jeg heldigvis et nydelig utdrag på plate. Og det er en plate som kommer til å bli spilt mye framover. For dette er «pise godt» som de sier i Danmark.

https://salt-peanuts.eu/record/sylvie-courvoisier-trio-3//

Co w jazzie piszczy [sezon 4 odcinek 15]

Graliśmy:

Amalie Dahl’s Dafnie EXTENDED “Slow motion” z albumu “Live at Moldejazz”

Jon Irabagon “Morning Star” z albumu “Focus Out”

Jon Irabagon “Sugar Rush (Radio Edit)” z albumu “Saturday child”

Sylvie Courvoisier Trio “Éclats – for Ornette” z albumu “Live in Europe” – Intakt Records

Biondini Godard Niggli “Tempi passata” z albumu “Fables Of Time” – Intakt Records

Michael Formanek “Braxes” z albumu “New Digs” – Intakt Records

Carlos Niño & Friends “Deep Bow” z albumu „Bubble Bath for Giants”

Devin Gray feat. Andrea Parkins & Frank Gratkowski “Kurkuma” z albumu “Hz of Gold” – Rataplan Records

Dave Stapleton “Quiet Fire” z albumu “Quiet Fire” – Edition Records

Gregory Hutchinson “Ah-Leu-Cha” z albumu “Kind of Now – The Pulse of Miles Davis” – Warner Music

Hugo Fernandez “Playing Chase” z albumu “Rivermind”

Brian Molley Quartet “The Man and the Lion” z albumu “Tùs / Origin” – BGMM Records

Horizon Trio “Pour des Prunes” z albumu “Oscilla”

Andrew MacKelvie’s Many Worlds “Mirror Era” z albumu „Many Worlds” – Watch That Ends The Night

https://donos.home.blog/2026/04/19/co-w-jazzie-piszczy-sezon-4-odcinek-15//

You don’t have to dig far into the lore of the Sylvie
Courvoisier Trio to encounter its origin story. Back
in the 2000s, when Courvoisier spent a lot of time
working with John Zorn, he spent some of that time
leaning on her to start a trio. The pianist resisted,
opining that the format was too straight, too burdened
with expectation and there was no way she was going
to play standards. But Zorn has ways of getting his
way, and it turns out that there was plenty of potential
in the idea. Éclats - Live in Europe is the fourth that
Courvoisier, Drew Gress (bass) and Kenny Wollesen
(drums) have made together since 2014. There’s nary a
standard among them; in fact, one thing made plain by
this concert recording is just how good the leader is at
composing for this setting, and how good she and her
accompanists are at renewing it.
This album’s material is drawn from its three
predecessors, but none of it feels rote. The performances
abound with stylistic variety and engaged interaction,
and while Courvoisier’s writing can be very complex
and demanding, it is also designed to share the joy of
high-level playing between musicians and listeners.
Take album closer “Downward Dog”, which was
originally recorded on the trio’s debut, Double Windsor.
After an intro that seems to flirt simultaneously with
Cecil Taylor and George Gershwin, it plunges into a
complex theme that elicits quite different solos from
each player. Gress is pithy and light on his metaphorical
feet; the pianist builds a lengthy statement that puts
her virtuosic control of her instrument up front;
Wollesen launches a series of arcing rhythmic figures
that contain, but are never derailed, by his alternation
of explosive and deescalating punctuations. And in
that sequence of singular statements, one sees just
why Zorn was right to keep bugging Courvoisier those
many years ago.
These three musicians don’t rehash the format’s
tropes; they write their own chapter in the piano trio’s
ongoing story.

Is “éclats” here fragments suddenly ejected from a breaking body, sharp and sudden sounds, or simply something that commands admiration? Probably a bit of all at once.

What you hear is a wide spectrum, touching on all forms of jazz, from the more grounded to the more exploratory, yet in a way that seems to reconcile everything and make sense of the whole burst of pieces. And in the end, what remains is exactly that, an éclat of jazz and an éclat of admiration.

https://bestofjazz.org/jazz-march-2026/

2025 war ein gutes Jahr für die Leaderin des SYLVIE COURVOISIER TRIOs. Sie erhielt den Schweizer Grand Prix Musik und bestach auf Intakt mit „Angel Falls“ im Duo mit Wadada Leo Smith. Und schon im Februar tourte sie mit Drew Gress: Bass und Kenny Wollesen: Drums & Wollesonics durch die Lande, wobei ihnen im Jazzclub Unterfahrt in München, beim JOE Festival in Essen und beim Festival Sons d’hiver in Ivry-sur-Seine in Paris zu guter Stoff gelang, um das nicht als Éclats – Live in Europe (Intakt CD 452) zu veröffent­lichen. Mit taufrischen Versionen von 'Just Twisted', 'Requiem D'un Songe', 'Free Hoops' und 'Lulu's Dance' von „Free Hoops“, 'Éclats For Ornette', 'Imprint Double (For Antoine Courvoisier)' und 'South Side Rules (For John Abercrombie)' von „D'Agala“, dazu das wie mir scheint neue 'Big Steps Towards Si­lence' und zuletzt 'Downward Dog', ein Cour­voisier-Favorit, den sie schon auf „Crop Cir­cles“, „Birdies For Lulu“ und „Crop Circles“ dargeboten hat. So what? Ein seit zwölf Jah­ren vereintes Piano-Trio, das sich seine Ver­sion des totgenudelten Formats als exzep­tionell schönredet? Drei virtuose alte Hasen, die sich mit ihrem same old, same old für feinsinniger und dynamischer als andere halten, insbesondere wenn Beifall ihnen Erb­sen ans Fenster hagelt? Allerdings muss man schon eingefleischte Aversionen mit­bringen, um bei Gressens stramm federn­dem Fingerspiel, Wollesens Gamssprüngen oder Gepardspurts über Metall und Fell und Courvoisiers launigem Tatzen und Wühlen auf den Tasten und ihren Jumps von einem Ende ans andere oder gar ins Innenklavier nicht die Augenbrauen oder die Mundwinkel hochzuziehen. Der Wechsel von abruptem Zugriff, tobendem Hämmern und krawalli­gem Einschlag zu hauchzartem Tickeln, von flotter Pace und unbändiger Rasanz zu sub­tilem Thrill, von quirliger Finesse zu grobem Gepolter, von crashiger Verdichtung zu be­wussten Luftlöchern – verblüffend. Ostinates oder träumerisches Kreiseln, Gnomus-Tritt, klirrendes Kristall, Roadrunnersprints und andere Comic-Kariolen, tuckernde Motorik, Präzisionsarbeit mit Hammer und Eispickel, Poesie von Fingerspitzen, plonkig, perlig – erstaunlich. Dann sogar zartbitterer Bogen­strich, die Stöckchen flickern, die Becken flirren, die Melodie findet sich zwischen Schatten und funkelndem Licht, verliert sich vertröpfelnd ins Leise, stellt sich koboldig und drehwurmig wieder ein. Sie hoopsen, wuseln, klappern, knarren kurios umeinander. Sie lassen Lulu als ungreifbaren Erdgeist aus der Büchse der Pandora erscheinen. Und trippeln zuletzt als x-pfotiger Hundepulk um ein Drumsolo rum aus dem Bild. [BA 132 rbd]

http://www.badalchemy.de/