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Gordon Grdina's Nomad Trio — Nomad
(Bandcamp Skirl 044, 2020, CD / DL)

by Jon Davis, Published 2021-04-14

Nomad Cover art

In contrast to the expanded instrumentation of his Resist album (also from 2020), Canadian Gordon Grdina is here in a stripped-down trio setting with Matt Mitchell (piano) and Jim Black (drums); Grdina plays both guitar and oud. The result is a fine set of avant-jazz taking Grdina’s compositions and running them through a highly improvisational spirit. These are not standard jazz tunes with changes under a head melody, but constructions built out of intersecting parts. Grdina’s playing at times reminds me of Rez Abbasi, with a restless harmonic sensibility manifested through unexpected intervals and flurries of frantic notes. At times, it seems nearly atonal, but everything holds together, balancing chaos and order but giving a slight edge to chaos. Sections of snaky, off-kilter riffing are punctuated by free-form splatters of notes and chords. I don’t recall encountering Mitchell before aside from some contributions on Thinking Plague albums; his resume also includes Steve Coleman, Dan Weiss, Claudio Fasoli, Tim Berne, Linda May Han Oh, and Dave Douglas. He’s outstanding in this setting, holding down the lower frequencies in the absence of a bass player and filling in unexpected chords while Grdina mostly plays single-note lines. His solos are unpredictable and full of lovely touches, a little like Satoko Fujii at times. Jim Black’s drumming is consistently creative, never settling into typical time-keeping, providing counterpoint to the others and participating as an equal partner. Nomad presents the restless spirit of jazz that refuses to be still, searching for a home and never settling down.

Filed under: New releases, 2020 releases

Related artist(s): Gordon Grdina, Jim Black

More info
http://gordongrdina.bandcamp.com/album/nomad

 

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