The Rite of Trio
Porto, Portugal
Saturday 8 Sep 2018
Festival City
There's nothing faddish about Toulouse born saxophonist Emile Parisien, especially when playing soprano, where he summons up the instrument's dark matter akin to its greatest exponents like Dave Liebman and Wayne Shorter. Indeed, it's Shorter's latter day quartets that provide an obvious point of reference for the group Parisien established in 2004 along with pianist Julien Touery, bassist Ivan Gelugne and drummer Sylvain Darrifourcq. Modal structures provide the barest of frames for discursive journeys and taut control of pulse, both implied and overt. It's very satisfying, and quite aside from the extravagant gifts of Parisien and Touery as soloists, collectively we hear a level of mutual listening and muscular performance more readily associated with players far their senior.
