Steve Swallow: Damaged in Transit

By GRAHAM REID

(Herald rating: * * *)

Led by bassist Steve Swallow - who has topped every Downbeat jazz-bassist poll since '83 apparently - this trio with tenor player Chris Potter and drummer Adam Nussbaum appears on the ECM subsidiary label Watt, home to the great composer Carla Bley and her various bands with whom Swallow has often played. These tracks were recorded live in France (not that you'd know, the audiences were either motionless and silent, or edited out) and solo and duo tracks alternate with trio settings. Almost an archetypal ECM album in the sense of refinement, clarity and space, it finds Swallow challenging himself in the skeletal possibilities away from his customary larger lineups. The results are consistently thoughtful, melodic and play off counterpoint in the intellectual but often engagingly emotional weave of sound.

Label: ECM