At Vortex Jazz Club in London: Speyer's Space Trio (Downstairs)

With SPACE TRIO, trumpeter Loz Speyer is taking forward many years’ exploration of the format, beginning with Threeway, his trio with NYC drummer Tony Bianco and bassist Julie Walkington (who went on to play bass in his group Inner Space); and continuing in FreeTrio with the renowned free jazz drummer Tony Marsh and bassist Olly Blanchflower. Both groups are now represented on albums, recently released by Spherical Records on Bandcamp: “Live in the Southwest” by Threeway recorded in 2000; and “Open Territory” by FreeTrio, comprising home recordings from 2009-11.

Meanwhile, SPACE TRIO emerged from Loz Speyer and Andrew Lisle working together in various improvisational projects over the last few years. All three musicians now live in Hackney, with Josh Vadiveloo now a near neighbour, having played in Xhosa Cole’s Birmingham-based quartet for some years. The multiple interactions at work in this new and lively combination are something to experience!

“The composing is reliably successful at offering engaging vehicles for extemporisation. But this dance between freedom and form needs more than that to succeed. Much of the time it relies on mainly motivic improvisation, with its particular demands. Speyer leads the way in meeting them. Rather like the great Bobby Bradford to my ear, just when you feel a solo excursion is beginning to fade he is able to apply the Ornette Coleman method of inflating another bubble of new melody, apparently at will. That’s something only the best players in this school can bring off consistently ... As the CD testifies, it makes their live performance a richly rewarding affair. Hearing them do it again in person shows a band going from strength to strength.”

- Jon Turney, UK Jazz News reviewing Loz Speyer’s Inner Space

photo by Winstan Whitter