Kjetil Mulelid Trio: Who Do You Love The Most?
Rune Grammofon

The more grammatically correct title for this piano trio's third album would be Whom Do You Love the Most?, but let's not quibble over pedantic details—it's the music that matters most, and as with the group's 2017 debut Not Nearly Enough To Buy A House and 2019's follow-up What You Thought Was Home, there's much to recommend about the new ten-song set. Double bassist Bjørn Marius Hegge and drummer Andreas Winther are integral to the performances, but make no mistake, the trio is clearly Mulelid's. Aside from a group improv and cover of Judee Sill's “The Archetypal Man,” all of the compositions are his, and it's his refined sensibility and playing style that characterize the trio's persona. Though he's only in his early thirties, he's grown into a player of considerable nuance and taste, that rapid maturation not only evident in his playing with the trio and jazz quartet Wako but even more perhaps on last year's distinguished solo release Piano.

In fact, two of the eight originals presented on the new recording, “Point of View” and “For You I'll Do Anything,” received a first airing on that solo outing; hearing them recast in trio form in no way lessens their appeal and if anything amplifies qualities common to the release in general: resonant melodies tinged with a warm, folk-like character; contemplative execution; and variations in style that find the trio delving into gospel, balladry, and playing that carries on the enduring trio tradition associated with Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett, Brad Mehldau, and other practitioners of the art.

Representative of the album is “Endless” for its lyrical tone, folk-tinged theme, painterly expression, and sense of fresh, in-the-moment spontaneity. Here and elsewhere, Mulelid's playing is thoughtful and generally free of excessive embellishment; he's no shrinking violet, however, hesitant to assert himself when it feels right. Many a theme is elaborated upon forcefully, with the pianist extending from it labyrinthine patterns. And just as it does for much of the recording, the trio opts for a rubato style that lends the performances a floating quality; rarely if ever do the three lock into a fixed pulse and not build upon it.

While Mulelid's trio is no clone of the Evans unit with Scott LaFaro and Paul Motian, it's hard not to draw a parallel when Winther's attack on “Point of View" is so reminiscent of Motian's. As the pianist voices the melodic material alongside Hegge's strong anchoring, the drummer powers the track with an insistent, cymbals-driven propulsion that's very much like his precursor's. On the aptly titled “Paul,” Winther's swirl of brushes and cymbals likewise calls to mind his predecessor, while the poetic abstraction in Mulelid's writing for the piece could also be construed as a Motian homage.

Elsewhere, “The Road” swings breezily, with elements of bop and R&B seeping into the performance. In being so titled, “Remembering” naturally captures the trio in introspective mode, and lyrical too is “For You I'll Do Anything” a swoon-inducing ballad if there ever was one. Whereas Sill's “The Archetypal Man” is treated to a delicious gospel reading and nicely includes a deserved spotlight for Hegge, the trio later makes its intentions explicit in titling a kindred expression “Gospel.”

July 2022