For more than 30 years, Swiss saxophone player Christoph Gallio has been the driving force behind the trio Day and Taxi, which debuted as a quartet back in 1986. His compositions are focused and structured in his own manner. Seemingly beyond the influence of musical trends, Gallio’s career has seen him play extensively across South America and at festivals in America, and he fits neatly into that crux between composition and improvisation.
Day and Taxi’s new album Devotion opens with “Tall Guy Blues,” a sensual, rolling number which finds Christoph Gallio providing depth and textured playing over short drum quips from Gerry Hemingway. A deeply textured number, this is a wonderful opener. Silvan Jeger delivers a gentle, quiet bass solo where the softness of delivery belies the technical challenges. This track, lasting just over 6 minutes, contains a range of styles and switches in tempo and rhythm, which make it engaging.
“Silvia” begins with the sax calling in repeated phrase over swung rhythms. This four-note riff provides the lynch pin around which Day and Taxi improvise and relate. Again, there are changes, tempo marks and rhythmic variations, all over which Gallio plays with obvious relish. Hemingway’s drum solo in the middle section offers a quiet but rhythmically challenging contrast. “Im Juni” is short at just under a minute, and includes sung words from the poem of the same title by Friederike Mayrocker. “Sol Ich Einen Turn Bauen?” is another short, delicious interlude provided by bass, drums and sax in a single driving rhythm.
“Gegenteil” is a beautifully delivered number, with staccato sax over the top of a flowing drum and bass, alternating with dextrous flying-fingered flits down the sax keys and back again. “Mare” is atmospheric from the start, with gongs and percussion setting the scene for a fantastic journey through spacey landscapes, emphasized by the gentle, breathy sax and quiet, slowed-down percussion. It’s melodic until the middle section, when the musicians create sounds most weird and wonderful yet connected because they are improvising around the same ideas.
“South For North” opens with some intricate Silvan Jeger bass work, working up to an engaging mesmeric rhythm, joined by Gerry Hemingway’s drums and then the sax introduces a lighter theme altogether. Day and Taxi work around a playful rhythm which has a Latino edge before the sax is the leader in a follow-me-if-you-can improvised section. A deeply layered and engaging number, including a drum solo from Gerry Hemingway to live for. “Ueli Der Meister” is a track which has all the essences of a dance in its structure, change of tempos and rhythms but with a pattern at the start before there is the introduction of a quieter, improvised section. The saxophone gently sings in altissimo, quietly delivering before the rhythm set at the start returns – and, suddenly, we are dancing again.
“Pan Comido” sets out with an offset 4/4 rhythm, which both engages and perplexes but somehow works because the ears are fully engaged whilst the brain is trying to catch up. Clever and lovely. The sax line at times is melodic, at others disharmonious and always tone perfect. “Fleurette Danoise” is gentle, then not so gentle, silent, then noisy – a track with contrasts and changes while “Your Attitude Surprises Me” is a bass-led, rapid-paced moving number with a tuneful sax line and is short and sweet at 40 seconds. “Be Kind to the Cats” is another very short (36 seconds) interplay between the band members, and “Faces” works as a quiet interlude while the percussion whips up a gentle storm for the first minutes, before the sax joins in an interplay with Hemingway’s solo drum sections.
“Dreizehn” and “Die Regenrose” are two interludes of (of 18 seconds and 25 seconds, respectively) with words by Friederike Mayrocker before “The Ghost Who Never Lies” provides bassy grooves over which the sax creates waves and lines of sound. It’s a very tuneful and lovely 51 seconds. “Flowers” is a track which sees bass and sax working together, with some beautifully placed percussion. Jeger’s bass emerges as lead here and it is quite exceptional, underpinned perfectly by the drums and the sax works its way in over the top. A great number with all three musicians playing on point.
“Doowoo” starts with a drum ricochet, then bass and sax flow in and the rhythmic, slightly swung nature of the track becomes apparent. Melodies are introduced, changes in rhythm and clever switches make this incredibly enjoyable. Christoph Gallio’s playing on this track is masterful and it manages to encompass a lengthy and rather joyous Gerry Hemingway drum solo too. Possibly the highlight track on Devotion. “Pray Monk” is again quiet and atmospheric, contrasting well with the more playful “Lightweight Heavyweight,” which closes the album and is based around an electric bass line which sets out a theme. The inclusion of the sequencer was a little irksome on this track but maybe that was just me.
Day and Taxi’s Devotion is an album to listen to, or have on in the background but be prepared to switch your attention to the music regularly. There is a complexity to the sounds which is at times extraordinary and the arrangements are deep and multi-layered, with improvised sections providing contrast and even more interest.
Christoph Gallio is an exceptional musician and clearly those he plays with are stand out. The music is a fusion of improvisation, kitsch and niche. It possesses poetic strands, energetic free-form sections, lyrical interpretation and above all an originality in Gallio’s compositions which are so ably interpreted by Day and Taxi bandmates Silvan Jeger and Gerry Hemingway. This is an outstanding album with music which is a rich combination of improvisation, tonal musicality and depth.
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