Customer Reviews

Yaya3

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A sweet album, with well written tunes (some have said are too much alike) that blend into one another in a relaxed easy way. This is the sort of music you can throw on anytime. It always sounds right to me. Yaya3 is a step forward. When someone says,"Organ trio," I get a sound in my mind of heavy riffs and fat drums. This is something different. A bit lighter with some interesting harmonies and edgy playing. Sam Yahel, particularly is always playing the perfect comp, the great solo..he's deep in the tune- a real part of it. Yahel's style is so subtle so empathetic that I'll back the cd up to relisten to a little filligree he'll put in at just the perfect moment. I wish that this effort had more of his playing...the date seems to belong to Redman. And Redman fits very well in this trio context. For me it's his most cohesive playing so far. There's an individual stylist here, not a saxophonist that's a collage of other influences. I've got to say this is Blades at his best-in the past he's either way too much flash or sounds like a bored hired-gun. Here he's definitely connected to the spirit of things- shading, adding textures, keeping the groove going without the hyper-intensity I've come to assosciate with him. A great cd, that's beautifully recorded and mixed. And good for WB for resurrecting LOMA and issueing a jazz performance. A good sign in weird times.

This is a great album of the group that has, for the past few years, made certain wednesday nights at Smalls the place to be in NY. The refined and original sound of Yahel on organ, and the interaction between Brian Blade and Redman make this CD stand out as one of the most original and captivating albums of the year. I hope this is the first of many fine recordings from this trio.

Quite often trio albums are less than the sum of their luminary parts. This album defies that, giving space to all three participants who provide nuance, depth and the dynamics to allow the creation of something very special.Whoever miked up Brian Blade's drums did a magnificent job, and his contribution is every bit as important as the other two participants, with clusters of sound filling,probing and moving the trio forward. Sam Yahel provides both empathetic understanding of what Redman can do, and also coaxes a wide range of sounds out of his B3.Joshua Redman is on his very best form on both tenor and soprano, in turn stretching the limits of the form, and at other times sitting back to allow his fellow musicians to develop their own themes."Slow Orbit" is an excellent preview of what is to come, with "The Spirit lives on","Aeolio" and "The Scribe" my other current favourites, but this is another album that gives up something new with every play. It is by turns subtle yet sinewy, but above all it's an enjoyable album with its own ever developing dynamics. I highly recommend this album, and eagerly anticipate what their next collaboration will deliver.

I enjoyed (and still enjoy) Joshua Redman's 2002 CD Elastic so much that I went scrambling around after listening to it, trying to find other projects where he, keyboardist Sam Yahel and drummer Brian Blade had collaborated on, as well as solo projects by the latter two. My search led me on to several albums, including Yahel's Truth and Beauty, which does bring the three together again, and Brian Blade's Brian Blade Fellowship, which does not. Both are excellent albums in my opinion.

But this is the one I've really been looking for. Released the same year as "Elastic", none of the funk of that project is evident but it's still essentially got the same vibe. The soul and passion that made it so gratifying are definitely both here. My guess is that jazz purists would prefer this album of the two, as it's, well, much more 'jazzy' and much less 'smooth'. Once again, Redman plays tenor and soprano saxophones, Yahel plays the Hammond B-3 Organ and Blade of course, is on the drums. Blade contributes two of the songs - both ballads - "The Spirit Lives On" and the album closer (and one of my favourites here), "Confronting Our Fears". Redman writes the lively "Switchblade", "Two Remember and One Forgets", a slightly bossa nova number that reminds me of "Girl From Ipanema". Yahel writes the most on here - five in total - the album opener, the soulful "Slow Orbit", the winding "One More Chance", "Hometown" (another immensely soulful number), "Aeolio" and "The Scribe".

Produced by Yahel, Redman and Blade, I find this a totally enjoyable album. I especially find it astonishing that they could make the music sound so full without the benefit of a bass player. I really hope I come across something else soon, that these three worked on together. They make a brilliant team.

Yaya3 is Sam Yahel (Hammond B3), Joshua Redman (sax), and Brian Blade (drums). The music within can be considered the predecessor to the Joshua Redman album Elastic, which adds a percussionist to the same basic trio, but which is also a much more produced effort with expanded instrumentation, overdubs, and electronic treatments here and there. What you get with yaya3 is an organ trio that's lean, spare, stripped down to the bare essentials. And it is self-produced by the trio, which in this case means simplicity, no tricks, no pedals, just three guys playing their horns.

Since there is no bass player, and Yahel does not use a heavy left hand, Blade must be the time-keeper, the pulse-giver (when the tune calls for it). But what if the basic time-keeping requirements are relaxed, or are allowed to go into a sort of "hot potato" delegation scheme? In such a scenario, no one keeps time and everyone keeps time. The "soloist", if it's Josh or Sam, may be called upon to provide their own time-keeping chores right in mid-solo, while the drummer either elevates into a counter-soloist role, or perhaps pulls back into a gentle wash of cymbal work. This is the way that the art of "elasticity" works, and these guys have it down to a science. If you dig simplicity and forthrightness (or organ trios, or Josh) you'll dig this.