Three astute, adventurous musicians — keyboardist Craig Taborn, guitarist Nels Cline and drummer Marcus Gilmore — have joined forces to create a new-groove supergroup, Trio of Bloom. The band’s self-titled debut will be released on Pyroclastic Records on Sept. 26. WRTI is proud to feature the video premiere of its lead single, “Queen King,” and to feature the track on Friday Mixtape and The Get Down on 90.1 FM and wrti.org.
Trio of Bloom was conceived by David Breskin, a poet and producer who has worked with each of the musicians in the group, and saw in this collaboration a sequel of sorts to Power Tools. (That historic triumvirate, which Breskin convened in the late-1980s, featured Bill Frisell on guitar, Melvin Gibbs on bass and Ronald Shannon Jackson on drums.) “I’m always looking for ways to cross-pollinate and to bridge gaps,” Breskin says in a press release. “I like to introduce people that might admire each other from afar but have never rubbed up against each other. I didn’t know what the combination would sound like, which is the most exciting aspect for me.”
The album, which Breskin produced, marked the first time that Cline had played with either Taborn or Gilmore. “I was somewhat daunted going into this, knowing how brilliant and virtuosic Marcus and Craig are,” he tells WRTI by email. “I can hear my nervousness manifesting occasionally, but overall the whole experience was warm and felt mutually supportive and even fun (!).”
The three musicians brought in original material for the group, as well as one cover tune apiece. Cline contributed four tracks — including “Queen King.” As Cline tells WRTI:
This song/track was dreamed up by me after Day One of tracking as something I could call “utilitarian” after noticing that things were leaning heavily on ballad material. Rather surprising! So I promised David that I would come up with a groove tidbit, and this is it: a variation of sorts on a Nels Cline Singers song of mine called “King Queen.” Both are 6/4 ostinato songs with a distinct nod to Afrobeat/Fela/Tony Allen, and “Queen King” features Marcus crushing a hypnotic multidimensional groove along with piquant keyboard work from Craig that illuminates his obvious deep knowledge of our Nigerian forebears/inspirations and expands upon it. I play bass and electric 12-string.Nels Cline
Elsewhere on Trio of Bloom, the band gets into spaces both combustible and contemplative — the latter including a dreamlike interpretation of the Wayne Shorter ballad “Diana.” The centerpiece of the album is a collective improvisation titled “Bloomers,” which capitalizes on these artists’ shared capacity for sonic experimentation in the context of a groove.
“We all share the broadest range of possible influences,” says Taborn in a statement. “I wanted to lean into those rather than delimit a certain space. I was very aware of how everybody played, so the real question became what that signature would be overall. I tried to leave the possibilities open and to engage each piece on its own terms.”
Trio of Bloom will be released on Pyroclastic Records on Sept. 26; preorder here.
"Queen King" written by Nels Cline
produced by David Breskin
direction and editing by Frank Heath
cinematography by Frank Heath and Jesse Wakeman
recorded and mixed by Ben Greenberg
