In the right hands, music can be shamanistic, a tool that alters one’s consciousness, keying open the door to deep interior spaces. The shamans Dino Saluzzi, Trio Tapestry, and Shai Maestro and company all have the right hands for the job.

Dino Saluzzi
Albores (ECM)
A review
Until a couple of weeks ago, Dino Saluzzi, the Argentine bandoneon player and composer, was completely unknown to me, despite his 85 years on the planet and his worldwide reputation as a master of the instrument. Now, we are constant companions, his recent solo release, Albores, seldom leaving the CD player. On Albores, his mastery announces itself in the orchestral range of sound—from low animal moans to angelic voices—that he draws from his compact and unassuming instrument, and from the nuanced expression he achieves through the subtle manipulation of tone and pitch. This album of original compositions takes memory, gratitude, and a sweet melancholy for its subjects, and Saluzzi’s sui generis compositions marry ancient Andean sensibilities with complex modern structures and harmonies. Again and again, he sets up harmonic expectations that he proceeds to move beyond as he paints vast interior landscapes. Stunning moments of insight abound, from the sacred quality of “Adios Maestro Kancheli,” an homage for the late Georgian composer, and “Ausencias,” which brought to mind an image of J. S. Bach ruminating on the church organ in the middle of the night, to the lighthearted “Ficción,” which calls to mind a Sunday in the park, by the merry-go-round. “La Cruz del Sur” is a slow dance with sorrow as a partner, and “Segun me cuenta la vida,” which seems to chronicle the struggle between flights of inspiration and the pull of gravity, gives clearest voice to the solitude at the heart of Saluzzi’s sound. This hushed, intimate album, an empathetic companion for your latest nights, offers a sure and gentle guide to deep reflection.

Trio Tapestry
Garden of Expression (ECM)
A review
On their eponymous first release, Trio Tapestry—Joe Lovano (saxes, tarogato, and gongs), Marilyn Crispell (piano), Carmen Castaldi (drums)—created “an album of expressive and intimate beauty,” according to the Musically Speaking preview of their Outpost appearance. Their second release, Garden of Expression, goes even deeper, offering a spacious chamber music, bathed in the pellucid light of stained glass, that owes much to jazz but transcends any particular genre. The harmonically open, rhythmically loose compositions seem to have the active stillness of meditation at their center, and they’re interpreted by three improvising masters of breathtaking virtuosity who enjoy an exquisite correspondence with one another. From the opener, “Chapel,” to the closer, “Zen Like,” the trio takes you on a introspective—dare we say, spiritual—journey in which silence plays as big a role as sound. Favorite moments include the sax’s impersonation of an alpenhorn in “Zen Like,” the deeply felt and weightless “West of the Moon,” and the elevating “The Sacred Chant.” Recorded in the very live atmosphere of the Auditoria Stelio Molo RSI in Lugano, Switzerland, where the trio had performed on the previous evening, every nuance of sound and silence is beautifully captured by sound engineer Stefano Amerio.

Shai Maestro
Human (ECM)
A review
Shai Maestro first came to the notice of Musically Speaking back in 2015. In the review of Untold Stories, he was identified as a musician who was just coming into his own and showed great promise. The Israeli pianist has delivered on that promise, in spades, as evidenced by his most recent release, Human, on which he is joined by three expertly expressive colleagues: trumpeter Philip Dizack, a Milwaukee native whose addition to the trio Maestro has described as similar to finding another gear in your car; Peruvian bassist Jorge Roeder; and a fellow Israeli, drummer Ofri Nehemya. A storyteller of the first water, Maestro exhibits a refined touch and deep feeling that is well matched by his colleagues, and a compositional style that owes as much to chamber music as to jazz. Many of the 10 original tunes—there’s one cover, a quite modern arrangement at a high simmer of Ellington’s “In a Sentimental Mood”—reflect Maestro’s Middle East background, but there’s also a whiff of early 20th-century French composers on “Compassion” and more than a hint of the blues on the title track. “Hank and Charlie” pays homage to Hank Jones and Charlie Haden, inspired in part by one of Maestro’s favorite albums—and mine—by that duo, Steal Away. “GG” lilts its way to a long unison passage between Maestro and Dizack, while “The Thief’s Dream” lays out a tale that follows a line from searching through chasing to finding. “They Went to War,” elegiac and wounded, tells a mournful story that is underscored by the march that begins about halfway through. With supple melodies and an open harmonic palette, Maestro invites you to relax into the music and go with the flow.

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© 2021 Mel Minter