Just five pieces, a mini-album rather than an EP - feel the quality rather than the quantity certainly. By far the longest track is the final one of these, 'My First Time'. But who is Ross Hicks? According to his potted biography on Bandcamp freelance pianist Hicks is ''Cardiff based'' and a graduate of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama who has gigged around South Wales in a variety of bands and has worked as a side player on a number of recordings. Hicks on Three Elms is with Guerilla Sound double bassist Nick Kaçal and drummer Alex Goodyear (who has played in the piano trio Yetii on 2022's Live at the Greenbank).
There is a grace and quiet authority about the title track, a hymnal sense that you can't really fake and certainly Hicks doesn't take any short cuts hiking towards the holy grail of beauteous euphony. On this track he makes us think of Daniel Karlsson a bit. The latinate clave driven 'Cuarentena' shakes things up - maybe a slight Chucho Valdés type influence there. All the tunes are Hicks' and he clearly is a writer not afraid to tap into his emotions given the way the music fizzes with life.
The long track at the end referred to in the first paragraph is easily the best of all these pieces - some of the shorter ones feel as if everything the trio has to say is being crammed in. Not so in the longest one where there is more of a sense of flow and detailed exploration. 'Short and Sombre' makes us think of the atmosphere on a Lars Danielsson melody - you know that piece 'Asta' on the Libera Me album? Obviously not that same piece or a rewrite of it all but the bittersweet effect is similiar. And a Dan Berglund-like solo from Kaçal on the same track works more than well on a recording that has strong Scandinavian influences most abidingly. Ross Hicks, photo: via Bandcamp
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