Joe Lovano Trio Fascination (Blue Note Tone Poet Series) 180g 2LP

Tracking Angle Rated 10/10 Music, 9/10 Sound!

On his remarkable 1997 album, Trio Fascination: Edition One, saxophonist Joe Lovano joined forces with two alltime legends – bassist Dave Holland and drummer Elvin Jones – in a spare trio setting that finds these three masters conversing freely. Blue Note Tone Poet Series is produced by Joe Harley, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original analog master tapes, pressed on 180g vinyl at RTI and packaged in a deluxe gatefold tip-on jacket.

"Trio Fascination: Edition One is a magical album. First, the trio itself was a one-time-only combo, the likes of which remains nearly unparalleled. Second, the music is original, almost inexplainable, yet very accessible. Finally, the fact that this reissue exists on vinyl is a welcome fluke—a correction to a misalignment of historico-cultural forces. It was recorded at a time when the top jazz engineers still often worked with analog tape, but LPs were said to be going the way of the Dodo bird. Which is to say: James Farber, one of the tops, laid down and mixed these tracks in analog—but they were mastered digitally for release on compact disc only. The Tone Poet release marks the first time the album has ever been on vinyl, and the grooves are spread out on two 180-gram discs, so that each of the four sides lasts between 15 and 17 minutes, leaving the center grooves uncrammed. The LP is airy and open, full of depth, Jones' cymbals shimmering and Holland's bass woody and plucked. There's breathiness and color to Lovano's horn, though I would have preferred him more forward in the mix; there seems to be a little more reverb than necessary. Still, this is a minor flaw in the restoration of a vital album." - Fred Kaplan, Tracking Angle, Music 10/10, Sound 9/10

Focus on any one of the musicians, and he seems to occupy the center of the action or going his own way, sometimes in a different direction, or at a different pace, from the other two. Yet sit back, take in the whole soundscape, and the three seem completely unified, a seamless whole, scaling improvisations as if they were written-through pieces that they've been playing together for years. Really, I don't quite know what's going on here or how they did it.