When you peel away all chordal instruments, the rhythm section gets exposed. That can be a delight or a disaster, but in the case of Toronto’s October Trio, it’s the former. Evan Arntzen’s sax or clarinet has a lot of character, a product of his expressive articulation, but Josh Cole’s bass occupies a lot of the space normally taken up by a piano or guitar, providing a funky counterpoint to Arntzen on “1983” or devising this narcotic circular pattern in concert with hip-hop savvy drummer Dan Gaucher on “New Dream,” or the jaunty trading off of solos with Arntzen on the Dirty Projectors’ “Imagine It.” But best of all, the October Trio finds a way to interact in a playful, spry way that makes these angular tunes light and fun to listen to.
A drive-by observer of the jazz scene S. Victor Aaron was a long-time SQL demon for a Fortune 100 company by day before advancing to popcorn factory laborer. His musings are strewn across the interwebs on jazz.com, AllAboutJazz.com, a football discussion board and some inchoate Amazon customer reviews of records from the late 1990s under a pseudonym that will never be revealed. Follow him on Twitter: @SVictorAaron. Contact Something Else! at [email protected].
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