Cuongo Vu 4-tet - Change in the Air 2LP

As a followup to 2017’s acclaimed Ballet: The Music of Michael Gibbs, Seattle-based trumpeter Cuong Vu joins forces once again with guitar great Bill Frisell, bassist Luke Bergman and drummer Ted Poor on the boundary-pushing quartet outing for RareNoise Records, Change in the Air. With all the members of the quartet contributing compositions, this one finds the four participants on equal footing on ten adventurous originals. From Poor’s dreamy, noirish opener “All That’s Left of Me Is You” and his lonesome echo-laden waltz “Alive” to Bergman’s dynamic “Must Concentrate,” Frisell’s delicate “Look, Listen” and his beguiling heartland melody “Long Ago” and Vu’s angular “Round and Round” and his edgy and electrified “March of the Owl and the Bat,” these four stellar musicians are truly on one accord and dealing with a rare level of nuance and depth of communication on Change in the Air.

“It was a team effort,” said Vu. “The only real leader thing that I did was make sure everyone had the studio dates in their calendars, set up rehearsals, made sure they knew where the studio was; more like secretarial work, is what I did. My only intention was that we should all bring in tunes to make it as collective as we could. This collection of people allowed me to let go and trust, and I knew that we all just wanted to make the best music that we could together.”