Dave Harrington, Max Jaffe, Patrick Shiroishi

Three RSTB favorites collide on a new trio record from Dave Harrington (DARKSIDE, Taper’s Choice), Patrick Shiroishi (Fuubutsushi, SSWAN), and Max Jaffe (James Brandon Lewis Trio, Elder Ones). The group’s new record Speak, Moment, entirely improvised in one afternoon, retains the immediacy of the band’s tenure in the studio. Each of the three brings with them a stacked list of accolades and their expertise results in a kind of alchemical rapport with one another. Shiroishi’s sax coats the speakers — a distant call from the hills, mournful, but with an underbelly of angst. Behind this blanket of reeded resonance, Jaffe’s rhythms create a subtle, supple cushion of percussion. Where many players make their presence felt, Jaffe feels at times like the unseen thread holding the record together, at least until the listener is lulled out the first couple of cuts on the record.

Once into “Dance of the White Shadow and Golden Kite,” and “Ship Rock” the band kicks gears and the softer strains melt in the midday sun. Turbulence upsets the barely restrained serenity of the opening moments. As the record wears on Harrington’s guitar becomes more bracing, moving from textural accompaniment to lacerating centerpiece. The pieces let Shiroishi and Harrington spar for center stage, both loosening the latches as the record reels towards a close. Again, the players’ skill both tears apart and glues this release together. In lesser hands the swings in temperament would unscrew the speakers entirely, but with these three at the helm, they shake the synapses without short circuiting. Speak, Moment is a vital document from three masters of the field.

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