Wha’s Nine: Live at the Sunset
Trio 3 (Marge)
by Laurence Donohue-Greene, AAJ-NY

Altoist Oliver Lake, bassist Reggie Workman and
drummer Andrew Cyrille co-founded Trio 3 in 1988
but didn’t record their first album Live in Willisau
(Dizzim) until four years later and only releasing it in
1997. Wha’s Nine, recorded live in Paris in October
2007 and only their fifth CD, is a gem of a document
that helps fill out the group’s slender discography.
    At the penultimate set of their four-night stand at
Birdland in late July - a simultaneous CD release and
20th anniversary celebration - they performed several
compositions from the disc and, as with the CD,
opened with Eric Dolphy’s “Gazzelloni”. On the live
CD, the tune functioned as both soundcheck and
warmup - the liners describe the group’s arrival after
the publicized showtime due to airline strikes and
flight delays - though the immediate three-way
intensity belied any jetlag or rustiness. Live at
Birdland, Trio 3 was wonderfully complemented by
pianist Geri Allen (only two pianists - Irene Schweizer
and Andrew Hill - have ever performed with the
group), whose punctuations served as an effective foil
to Lake’s sudden intervallic leaps and maintained Trio
3’s greatest strength: balance between structure and
freedom, composition and improvisation.
    Workman plays a central role as set-up man and
indeed the bassist’s best and most experimental
playing is arguably with this group; on Curtis Clark’s
“Amreen”, which followed “Gazelloni” in both Paris
and New York, he amazed with an unaccompanied
pizzicato solo that sounded more like a bass duet. The
same can be said for Lake, whose distinct tone floats
then flutters in lyrical and rhythmic fashion and
Cyrille, who lightly bounces odd rhythms from his kit,
with exclamatory bass drum kick or slashing cymbal
where you’d expect neither.
    Trio 3’s collective development finds each
member commonly orbiting the others’ contributions
with empathy solidified over two decades. The
expanded version with Allen is heard best on the
Workman-penned title track, played on both live
occasions. Its upbeat theme incorporates all the
elements that make Trio 3 - with or without Allen - one
of the best small groups performing - and recording
(two more releases are due out by May 2009) - today.
For more information, visit futuramarge.free.fr