Master double bassist Michael Bisio rings in the new year of 2022 with a set of mostly original material performed solely on his peerless instrument. Inimitable came about by chance when in planning a trip to South Korea (later cancelled due to the global pandemic), Bisio found out about Mung Music – the fledgling improvised music label started in that country by Sunjae Lee – and it soon became clear to the bassist that this would be a sensible home for a new batch of recordings, done right before the COVID wave hit worldwide.
As one of the very finest bassists operating in New York today, Bisio has both the facility and vision required to pull off a solo bass album that holds one interest throughout, and on Inimitable, he does just that.
Bisio’s great gift is his ability to spin out a story when he’s playing, no matter how free and undefined is the setting in which he operates. This is a quality that comes up front and center on Inimitable, and you hear it particularly on “Quintessence,” and “Henry’s Theme,” where he establishes the lyricism first and the chops flow out from that in a natural manner.
Bisio has never been timid to test the perimeters of the standup bass’s range of timbres, as with his adventurous bowing on “New One,” and he does it again with added vigor for “Hear Now.” After the hypnotic “Small Things Interrupted,” Bisio saws through “Renew One” with the stateliness of a classical music performer, then ditches the bow and attacks his instrument with the inventiveness of the top-flight jazz artist that he is.
“Wise One” is an underappreciated spirit ballad by Coltrane but not so underappreciated by Bisio. He constructs his own reading of the melody but somehow retains all its majestic solemnity. The whole fare ends with an old standard, “I Fall in Love Too Easily,” where Bisio makes his bass sing with the wistfulness that’s strongly associated with this tune.
Inimitable is an intimate recording where Michael Bisio seemed to have plowed ahead and played with a lot of heart and instinct with not too much forethought. Get Inimitable today from Bandcamp.
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