Recording of the Week, Goldings, Bernstein & Stewart, 'Perpetual Pendulum'

Larry Goldings, Peter Bernstein, and Bill Stewart have been playing as a trio for over 30 years, with Perpetual Pendulum marking their 18th collaboration together. Evidence that they’re so long in the game as a unit is abundantly clear from the ease with which they play and improvise together, but there’s never any sense of things having become rote or cosy, and this latest record is bursting with ideas, challenging time changes, and an abiding sense of discovery. “I think we all share a pure feeling of gratitude,” says Bernstein. “With these cats, I feel pressured to play my best because they’ve heard everything I can do. At the same time, I feel comfortable trying anything with them because I know whatever I do, they’re going to hold it together. We’ve all grown through our individual experiences, but we always come back to this. And it’s only getting better.”

As a format the classic Hammond B-3 organ trio has become synonymous with a certain type of laid-back, bluesy soul jazz (with recent releases by the Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio and the late Lonnie Smith’s final recording only reinforcing this), but Goldings, Bernstein, and Stewart tend to take a different approach, steering things towards more of a straight-ahead sound. So although there are grooves a-plenty to be found here, and despite the fact that all three players have spent time accompanying funk maestros like Maceo Parker and Lou Donaldson, they also draw heavily on bop and hard-bop. Goldings came to the trio from the perspective of a pianist, and this approach helped avoid the sound becoming dominated by the organ. In fact on some tunes Goldings’ presence is felt more through his fluid bass-pedal lines than flashy leads.

Things get off to a brisk start with a terrific take on Wayne Shorter’s ‘United’, a tune written during Shorter’s time in Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers in the early sixties. There’s real playfulness in the way the trio pass the theme between each other, with Goldings and Bernstein each taking memorable solos before trading fours with Stewart. The fact that the group is not billed as the Larry Goldings Organ Trio speaks volumes for the sense of democracy in the group's sound, with Bernstein’s guitar enjoying just as much of the limelight as Golding’s B-3. A cover of The Modern Jazz Quartet’s ‘Django’ starts with a long intro by Bernstein, in which he takes his time to assemble the fragments of the famous melody before properly stating it, with Goldings’ tasteful low register chords helping gel it all together. Goldings’ solo brings a nice change of pace, prompting Stewart to drop some exciting fills. Similarly the more jazz-rock paced ‘FU Donald’ (no prizes for guessing the sentiments behind the title) allows Stewart room to cook up some really novel on his kits, including some discretely scraped cymbals, all of which are nicely positioned in the stereo field (I found these especially enjoyable on headphones.)

Bernstein offers two original compositions, the title track and ‘Little Green Men’, which for me is one of the highlights of an excellent collection. Blatantly a showcase for his ability to spin long, uninterrupted melodic guitar lines, Goldings more than matches him when his turn comes around. Make sure not to miss Stewart’s showcase towards the end, a masterclass in subtly swinging timbres.