Feature Fridays: Flashback by Tubis Trio
Welcome to Feature Fridays! Each week, 麻豆原创 music library staff highlights a CD or artist from our collection. This week, Student Assistant Ryan Jacobs reviews听Flashback听by Tubis Trio.听
听(2018) is the third studio album from Tubis Trio, a three-piece jazz band from Poland comprised of pianist Maciej Tubis, bassist Pawe艂听Puszcza艂o, and drummer Przemek Pacan. Tubis is听the听group鈥檚 primary composer,听and is influenced by Swedish jazz pianist Esbjorn Svensson and his trio. Defying clear genre classification, their music remains accessible even to those who aren鈥檛 typically fans of jazz.听
鈥淭he term jazz is just a label,听and it imposes limits,鈥 explains Maciej Tubis. 鈥淲e create tunes with melodious themes but unforeseeable forms. Classical polyphonies transform into rock ostinatos. We draw inspiration from various musical styles and various periods, sometimes we reach for pop songs, but we rehash them using our best artistic skills.鈥澨
This album caught my eye with its pareidolic cover art when trawling through the list of new NAXOS jazz additions, and immediately caught my ear as well. The first track, 鈥淩ekindled鈥, wasted no time in grabbing my attention with its joyfully infectious and upbeat groove, starting off so strong that I had no choice but to listen to the entire album. The push and pull between high and low energy is executed well, and the compositions are nicely balanced so that the band plays as a cohesive unit.
My favorite tracks on the album are the aforementioned leading tune 鈥淩ekindled鈥, the subdued yet emotionally-rich 鈥淓steem鈥, the听proggy-yet-poppy 鈥淩oadrunner鈥, and the slow-building title track 鈥淔lashback.鈥澨齌he album听paints an image of a mature and close-knit trio of talented musicians with a clear compositional vision. I am very happy to have stumbled across this record, look forward to exploring more of their music in the future, and hope that you听have been inspired to do so as well.听
Flashback听is available from Naxos Jazz with your 麻豆原创 login.