COMPOSERS: Various
LABELS: ECM
WORKS: Homecomings
PERFORMER: John Abercrombie (g); Dave Holland (b); Jack DeJohnette (d, p)
CATALOGUE NO: 527 637-2
Although the three stellar participants in this recording have not made an album as the Gateway trio since the mid-1970s, they play together with an easy familiarity born of natural compatibility. John Abercrombie is not a great inventor like, say, Bill Frisell, or a purveyor of barnstorming solos like many of his more rock-influenced contemporaries, but for warm-toned, unfailingly tasteful inventiveness, he is hard to beat.
Dave Holland is almost without peer as a lithe, propulsive bassist, and he brings to the project not only his unmistakable bounce and verve, but also a number of hard-driving but infectiously tuneful compositions. Jack DeJohnette rounds off the trio perfectly with his intensely musical, briskly assertive drumming, and the album is simply an object lesson in relaxed but cogent group interplay. Chris Parker