Joe Diorio Trio - 1991 [2006] "LIVE"

With over 30 years experience as a performer and recording artist, Joe Diorio has worked with such Jazz luminaries as Sonny Stitt, Eddie Harris, Ira Sullivan, Stan Getz, Horace Silver, and Freddie Hubbard.

Live is the plectrist's latest release—a time-capsule of a 1991 live performance—and perhaps the finest recorded representation of his work to date. Working with his preferred compadres (bassist Bob Magnusson and drummer Jim Plank) in a San Diego hotel, this recording gives new meaning to the term "lounge music. The set consists of well-chiseled standards performed off-the-cuff with minimal preliminary bandstand chit-chat, the familiarity of the material and the familiality of the players creating a comfort cushion allowing, paradoxically, for maximum artistic freedom. Most of the numbers open with Diorio ruminating over the harmonic implications of the piece, fleshing out his thoughts in a variety of voicings, tones, textures and techniques with the fluency of a veteran master who has many options to draw on; he plays a lot of guitar without sounding like he's overplaying, comping for himself in the manner of Barney Kessel. Magnusson is the perfect foil, utilizing slapped staccatos and slow-sliding attacks that seem to arrive at the note just in time, while Plank corners every turn with them; unfortunately again, the recording doesn't do justice to the nuances of his drumkit sound.

Although this live gig by guitarist Joe Diorio was released for the first time in 2006, the music dates from a lost 1991 recording uncovered by his wife, with the guitarist joined by bassist Bob Magnusson and drummer Jim Plank. This entirely unrehearsed set focuses on standards, all played in extended form with imagination and plenty of risk-taking. The trio members eschew the normal approach to the ballad "Lover Man," instead slowly working their way into it, repeating a series of chords before finally loosening up and increasing the tempo as they play straight-ahead. The leader softly hums to himself during his unaccompanied introduction to the old warhorse "On Green Dolphin Street," though this standard sounds very fresh in the hands of the trio, featuring terrific breaks by each musician. The slowly savored interpretation of Thad Jones' lush "A Child Is Born" is yet another highlight, as is the intense workout of "Yesterdays." It seems unfair that Joe Diorio has not been more widely recognized within the jazz community, but those who discover the music on this highly recommended CD will quickly become devoted fans.

For Joe Diorio's many fans, the appearance of a new album is a significant event. Among jazz guitarists, Joe Diorio occupies a legendary place as a glorious and incomparable musician . . . a "bad-axe" cat. This publication of Diorio's longtime working trio "in concert" reveals a musical partnership that displays Diorio's gentle beauty in its best setting.

The album opens with "Loverman," an extended philosophical meditation that lifts into a romp, as if the song's little recognized exuberance awaited just these three players to find it. Plank's light-hearted dance precisely frames Magnusson's growling churn. We are up and off, gliding, prowling, cavorting with musicians atuned to one another. The unerring surplus of the whole is the sympathy between the three players, a sympathy that literally defines this live album: a single set here replicated just as Joe Diorio's

Trio laid it out one early evening in San Diego in 1991 ...perfection of a kind seldom found anywhere -- unselfconscious, bold, most of all, joyful.

Track listing:

1 Lover Man 14:30

2 Corcovado 11:30

3 Green Dolphin Street 10:20

4 A Child Is Born 10:10

5 Yesterdays 10:41

6 The Night Has A Thousand Eyes 10:06

Personnel:

Guitar – Joe Diorio

Bass – Bob Magnusson

Drums – Jim Plank