Carolyn Trowbridge
Found Memories
Texan vibraphonist Carolyn Trowbridge has much fun with sound structures on her debut album as the leader of a regular quartet augmented on various tracks by four guests. Despite one of them being a tenor saxophonist (Jason Frey), the prevailing sonority is dictated by her vibes, the flautist Alex Coke, the harpist Elaine Barber and the vocalist Caitlin Palmer.
It often makes for an atmosphere bordering on the ethereal, kept earthbound by a tripping rhythmic dynamo. Trowbridge’s compositions don’t so much swing as dance, where dancing is anything but flash-act, four-to-the-bar boisterous. In fact, the motion verges on the dainty and measured. Ghostliness in Chopin’s Séance is underpinned by an ostinato tread throughout, and Physalia’s Journey is a determined voyage into space with interstellar signals sent back to ground control. Fascinating.
Trowbridge’s odd chart titles are attractions in themselves, Duchess Of Sheba introducing a touch of Eastern exoticism, its air of mystery coupled with accelerated motion suggesting a cinematic quality. Grackle Versus Tacotarian has one wondering where the title comes from while flurried solos, notably from Coke, jolt the listener into appreciating sounds that may or may not offer clues to its origins. The Old Woman Who Never Grew Older has a hymn-like, though non-fervent, quality, in contrast, say, to the idiosyncratic Turtle Heart, which incorporates a lot of what throughout the album might be described as easy-going empyrean. - Nigel Jarrett