O'Gallagher, John Trio

Dirty Hands

Label: Clean Feed Country: Portugal

"The music played by the alto saxophonist O'Gallagher, with Masa Kamaguchi on bass and Jeff Williams on drums, is one of effortless beauty as a result of years of working together. For O'Gallagher, a composition is much more than a vehicle to improvise on; it is the source of the improvisation. Whether playing free improvisations or original compositions, the truth is that everything here is meticulously structured. So, we have a composer in the good-old Duke Ellington way: he writes for the musicians who play with him, partly knowing by anticipation what to expect, and partly challenging them (and himself) to always go further. Very influenced by contemporary classical music, its solutions and ideas are used by the leader of this trio with a nod to the past in a genre known for its assimilation of elements coming from other musical languages. O'Gallagher speaks of "opening new doors", and that's something jazz always did. Another particularity of this music is its visual character - the pieces function audibly like moving abstract images. The sense of space, line, color and density we find in painting is what this band translates to the art of sounds. "There definitely are parallels in painting and playing. When I improvise and compose, I'm influenced by a visual sense of trying to create objects and color," John O'Gallagher said in an interview to All About Jazz. "Dirty Hands" is the clear confirmation of that statement and is a recording not to be missed."-Clean Feed