Paula Shocron / Pablo Diaz / William Parker

November 28, 2021

El Templo

Astral Spirits AS 164

Alberto Braida, Silvia Bolognesi, Cristiano Calcagnile

Cats in the Kitchen

We Insist! CD WEIN 15

While some could regard these compelling piano trio CDs as proving the discrepancy between American and European approaches, the rift is simpler and more complex than that. Long-time musical partners, pianist Paula Shocron and drummer Pablo Díaz are part of Buenos Aires’ burgeoning improvised music scene and El Templo provides the opportunity to hook up with bassist William Parker, a New Yorker with similar freed concepts. The five selections are mostly raucous and manic. Change those adjectives to relaxed and malleable and the result is Cats in the Kitchen, But these particular feline are all Italian: pianist Alberto Braida and percussionist Cristiano Calcagnile from the Milan area and bassist Silvia Bolognesi from Sienna.

Building their five-part program from Shocron’s rolling chords and metronomic rumbles, Díaz’ sandpaper-like percussion rubs and claps and Parker’s fluid string pulsations result in intense interface, though the pianist is capable of swinging coloration if she wishes. More colors arise from the drummer who build his accompaniment from cymbal splatters, hard ruffs and crunches to intersect with Shocron accelerating from low-pitched plinks and stopped keys to strident intensity. Parker maintains linear affiliations and confirms the resolution of “Capricomo” and the CD itself with a conclusive pump. However it’s the half-hour plus title track which allows for absolute trio definition. Working up slowly scene setting results from Shocron’s key stopping, Parker’s power pumps and bell-tree shakes from Díaz in triple counterpoint. As the theme resonates among the three, each projects more distinctive motifs, culminating in a collection of Bluesy keyboard arpeggios mixed with shaking drum shuffles and arco stops from the bassist. As the pianist’s glissandi emphasize timbral color, her chord progression also focus on sounds between the keys, and later a colonoscopy-like evaluation of the instrument’s bowls. Meanwhile Diaz adds guiro-like ratcheting and Parker string stopping so that by the final sequence the tune is unrolling at triple the speed of the introduction. While the resulting textural connections almost fill every imaginable space, paced by drum rolls and ululating bass buzzes the piece stays linear until the end.

Looser and less intense, Cats in the Kitchen is a more straight-ahead indication of what a practiced piano trio can accomplish and a welcome return to form for Braida, whose most recent sessions have been a little loggy. Here paced by Bolognesi’s fluid pulse and Calcagnile’s subtle shuffles he produces long-lined story-telling mixed with more intense expression. This is especially obvious on the conjoined “La giostra/Cane e gatto”, where drum rattles and emphasized low pitches from piano and bass set up a loping narrative that is as amicable as it is technically astute. The mood is carefree enough so that Braida throws in a winking snatch of “Chopsticks” in the middle of his light-finger elaboration of “Campanile, rebounding alongside cymbal scratches – and is that a quote from “Yesterday” that peers out from his conclusion to “Marcia”? Mixed in with the inferences towards marches, waltzes and locked hand emphasis on the pianist’s part are a few bass and/or drum breaks. Calcagnile has a mini-showcase of ruffs and ratamacues, while Bolognesi sometimes jumps in with emphasized complementary rhythms. It’s “Un po’ in certo” which most appropriately sums up the performance. A gentle exposition that evolves with well-shaped keyboard emphasis and complementary walking bass strokes, it exhibits subtle strength as Braida climbs up the scale while multiplying the number of notes in each section. Yet after this demonstration of intensity, the calm theme is reasserted before the finale.

The mixture of South and North American cool felines has produced a session on El Templo worthy of praise in a non-ecclesiastical manner, while the Italian gatos on the other disc demonstrate that their sophisticated cooking time in la cucina produced much more than delicious meals.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Templo: 1. Los Jardines 2. El Templo 3, Ausencia 4. Capricomo

Personnel: Templo: Paula Shocron (piano); William Parker (bass) and Pablo Díaz (drums and percussion)

Track Listing: Cats: 1. Hiking 2. Proust 3/4. La giostra/Cane e gatto 5. Cerchio 6. Dedalus 7. Campanile 8. Un po’ in certo 9. Marcia

Personnel: Cats: Alberto Braida (piano); Silvia Bolognesi (bass) and Cristiano Calcagnile (drums and percussion)