John Fordham 

Kit Downes/Lucy Railton: Tricko review – eerily inviting chamber music duo

Pianist Kit Downes and cellist Lucy Railton have already played this repertoire live, but it reveals much more on disc
  
  

Lucy Railton and Kit Downes
Gracefully cutting-edge … Lucy Railton and Kit Downes Photograph: PR IMAGE

When he was still a student jazz pianist with the fledgling Empirical, Kit Downes was already declaring that jazz meant for him an opportunity to mingle all kinds of music, rather than pursue a specific style. Seven years and much acclaim later, he’s extended that conviction all the way to Tricko, the chamber-music duo he shares with contemporary-classical cellist Lucy Railton. They’ve played this repertoire live, but since it can be restlessly sharp-angled as well as tranquil, the recording reveals implications not always clear on stage. The busy Jinn, for instance – juggling quietly prodding chords and feverishly wriggling resolutions – reveals elegant inner symmetries here. The Ravel-inspired Alliri is similarly capricious yet shapely, the title track alternates a prancing rhythm with a lazily swimming feel, and Inho recycles a subtly lengthening motif and sounds as if it’s shrouded in mist. It’s only conventional jazz in passing glimpses, and Tricko won’t be a license to print money, but this is eerily inviting, gracefully cutting-edge music.

 

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