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Pete Roth Trio — Group Chat
(Cherry Red Winterfold BBWF006CDVD, 2026, CD+DVD / DL)

by Jon Davis, Published 2026-09-01

Group Chat Cover art

Like most music lovers, I first heard about Group Chat because of the involvement of drummer Bill Bruford, which is perfectly natural, since he’s the most well-known of the musicians involved. But the name above the title is Pete Roth Trio, with Mike Pratt and Bill Bruford listed underneath. Roth is a guitarist who was born in Germany but has been based in England for some time. According to his bio, he’s done a fair amount of work as a sideman and recorded two albums as a leader, though I can only find info on one, Circus in the Sky (2014). And crucially, twenty years ago, he was a student of Bruford and also his drum tech. So when Bruford started feeling the urge to play drums again after 13 years of retirement, he thought of Roth as a collaborator, and Roth suggested bassist Mike Pratt. Together they form a tight and innovative guitar trio that treats genres more as tools than rules — the various streams of jazz and rock involved are just elements to be used as they see fit, not boundaries to be constrained within. So when they tackle a standard like “Summertime,” the guitar delves into rich chords and bluesy embellishments while the drums lay down a subtle but steady backbeat, but the arrangement builds into a loose funk with some surprisingly heavy distortion on the guitar. They also adapt the famous “Largo” from Dvořák’s Ninth Symphony, using the melody as a jumping-off point for a lovely improvisation. Elsewhere, as in the opening section of “Looking Forward to Looking Back,” they delve into a tasty odd-meter riff, and “Full Circle” has a distinct fusion edge to it, taking a jazzy lead line into some very edgy territory. Throughout the album’s nine tracks, Bruford’s performance is just as brilliant as you’d expect, especially if you’re at all familiar with his Earthworks albums, but he never overwhelms the arrangements. Pratt does an excellent job fitting in during all the many moods. As in any guitar trio, it’s the guitar that makes or breaks the music, and Roth handles the role admirably. His tone varies from old-school clean to distorted modern and he’s got a way of bending notes that’s quite distinctive. There are the occasional rapid flourishes of notes, but they’re infrequent enough to make them special when they do show up. So many guitarists with good technique feel the need to go there in every song, but Roth has the good sense to focus on melody and tone more than shredding. Group Chat is a great album all around, and should appeal to most jazz fans as well as listeners looking for a new voice on the electric guitar.

Filed under: New releases, 2026 releases

Related artist(s): Bill Bruford / Earthworks, Pete Roth

More info
http://cherryred.bandcamp.com/album/group-chat

 

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