RBG Trio, Neither Here Nor There, RBG Trio ****

Tenor saxophone, double bass, drums are the raw ingredients - a loping, circling freebop the method. In case you were wondering the R in the band name is as in the surname of bassist Dave ''Live in Arklow'' Redmond; the B, as in the surname of …

Published: 21 Nov 2022. Updated: 16 months.

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Tenor saxophone, double bass, drums are the raw ingredients - a loping, circling freebop the method. In case you were wondering the R in the band name is as in the surname of bassist Dave ''Live in Arklow'' Redmond; the B, as in the surname of drummer Kevin Brady who was with Redmond on the mighty Plan B last year with Seamus Blake and Bill Carrothers; and the G, last name of tenor saxophonist Meilana Gillard, the erstwhile Hendersonian who first surfaced on Greg Osby's label in the States. This Ireland based trio in a little under seven minutes deliver a calling card of rugged weight that finds Gillard's tough tenor confident and full of ideas over the open lines of Brady and the circular momentum heating up from the bass. Meilana sounds more Joe Lovano-like than ever and this Lo-down suits all concerned. Track of the day - new in our One Luv section 'Neither Here Nor There', quite the statement of intent, is released on 1 December.

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Dave Redmond, top left in the Bandcamp photo, Meilana Gillard, Kevin Brady

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Sun-Mi Hong, Third Page: Resonance, Edition ***

A quintet record made in Amsterdam last year the work of a group led by the South Korean Amsterdam-based drummer composer Sun-Mi Hong who debuted five years ago with First Page followed by A Self-Strewn Portrait just two years ago. You get a sense …

Published: 20 Nov 2022. Updated: 16 months.

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A quintet record made in Amsterdam last year the work of a group led by the South Korean Amsterdam-based drummer composer Sun-Mi Hong who debuted five years ago with First Page followed by A Self-Strewn Portrait just two years ago.

You get a sense of a Dave Douglas like horn arrangement coming through on 'Blind' and later 'As We Are'. Certainly the album's modernistic top coat is inviting and stimulating but the album can become a little too self-absorbed on the pensive '0191' during which pianist Chaerin Im certainly massively chills the temperature.

Hong, you get a hunch, wants the whole sound to go wilder and freer and on the improv conversation with trumpeter Alistair Payne that spirit finds an agreeable outlet. The tunes don't really reel us in much apart from the delicately revealing 'Home' that seems more complete a realisation of what the quintet can do - and where the warmth of tenorist Nicolò Ricci's sound expresses itself most tellingly.