Alister Spence has led a long-running trio under his name but the pianist from Sydney, Australia had lately focused on expanded version that added Ed Kuepper’s electric guitar that added a whole new dimension to the conventional piano threesome that also boasts Toby Hall on drums and Lloyd Swanton on double bass. We’ve enjoyed the jolt of adventurism found in these Asteroid Ekosystem records, but Spence was ready for a return to the original Alister Spence Trio and after a seven-year recording hiatus, cut Gather with Swanton and Hall.
Gather doesn’t have the punk ethos that often erupts when Kuepper is involved, but it’s no less provocative. It subverts the piano/bass/drums formula in ways that are sometimes subtle, sometimes not. It starts with the composing pen of Spence, who brings a fresh approach to song construction and arrangement that maximizes the abilities of the talent at hand.
“The Gathering” is about deft layering. Starting with a simple piano trill, a hard groovin’ harmonic counterpoint is formed by Swanton, Hall and Spence’s left hand. The extended bridge makes the song blow wide open when Spence’s piano samples are tossed into the mix.
The solo piano improvisation “Homeland Introduction” exhibit’s Spence’s flair to come up with alternating melodic and rhythmic figures on the fly, and one can sense he knows just where he’s going with it. The rest of the trio enters and slows it down when we reach “Homeland,” which gets going with a comely Swanton feature (the song ends this way, too), followed by Hall’s delicate touch on glockenspiel.
“Crossed Over” is a two-faced song: a melodic song masquerading as free jazz and an overtly structured song that’s full of stimulating turns, mostly led by Swanton. Though subdued, “Beginning of the End of the Beginning” is arguably the most adventurous selection here. A through-composed number featuring Swanton playing arco bass, the second half finds Spence on prepared piano and setting up a rhythmless drone that interestingly resembles the minimalism perfected by Swanton’s better-known band, The Necks.
Hall gets his turn to flash for the intro of “Falling From the Top of the Sky,” revealing an attention to the tonality of his drums. Then, he kicks off an unusually slow swing, which underpins Spence repeating figure that suggests the blues but not committing to it.
Swanton’s solo bass sets up a bass/piano unison pattern for “Moment Between.” Spence later plays alone, incorporating just the right amount of classical music to make it graceful while retaining the esoteric quality of jazz. “Antidote for Lean Times” finishes the album with a taut, drum ‘n’ bass-adjacent groove but Spence is constantly goading his rhythm section into bouts of three-way improvisation.
Through imaginative composing and arranging combined with telepathic interaction, Alister Spence and his Trio make cutting-edge jazz out of an old format with Gather.
Gather is on sale now and you can get it from Bandcamp.
*** Alister Spence CD’s and vinyl on Amazon ***
- Alister Spence Trio – ‘Gather’ (2025) - March 22, 2025
- Tim Berne’s Snakeoil – ‘Snakeoil OK’ (2025) - March 18, 2025
- Young Gun Silver Fox, “Stevie & Sly” (2025): One Track Mind - March 17, 2025
