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Paula Gardiner Trio: - Hot Lament

Edition Records – EDN 1004

Paula Gardiner, bass, flute, acoustic guitar;
Lee Goodall, flutes, percussion, saxophones;
Mark O’Connor, drums, percussion

Hot Lament is Paula Gardiner’s first album as a leader for some years. Edition records describe it as “an album of delightful contrasts”. The opening track is ‘Hot Lament’ and it is a solemn, almost sad introduction to fourteen pieces that range widely in form and in aura. Half a dozen of the tracks are given to the trio as collective composers, the other eight being Paula’s own. These exhibit an easy transition between influences from channels as diverse as Celtic, African and South American, as well as some evidence of her earlier devotion to classical guitar and its folk reflections, she being an accomplished guitarist long before she turned to the double bass. There are elements too of freer ventures into the arena of the abstract.

It is one of the longer tracks on the album which caught my attention more than any other. ‘Beneath Rioja Skies’ opens with Paula’s deeply resonant, solo bass and continues with Lee Goodall’s saxophone developing her melody over a bass theme. Mark O’Connor excels, his crucial drum work properly restrained even when he cuts to the front with the cymbals. It’s a masterpiece.

There is a sense of unity throughout the album that lends to it a narrative quality, each part, even the smallest, contributing to a continuum. It is this that makes it ear-catching: it is at once balmy, cleverly delicate yet effervescent and always ingeniously dynamic. I’m sure it will grow on you.

Reviewed by
ken cheetham
October 2008