The String Trio of New York is a cross-genre trio of musicians whose members have changed somewhat regularly over the 30+ years of their existence. This iteration of the group from the 90s features guitarist James Emery, violinist Regina Carter, and bassist John Lindberg. I got this album because it was at the bookstore and because it features Regina Carter, who I’ve been meaning to check out. The tracklist features quite a few covers, mostly of jazz iconoclasts like Monk, Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy, etc. It also features a few originals from each of the musicians. The group’s sound varies from track to track - on some, it feels mostly just like a uniquely-instrumented post bop recording. On others, they dig deep into avant-garde and modern classical territory, and those tracks can definitely be a bit on the grating side to me. I much preferred the covers. One cool one combines Bud Powell’s Reets & I with Charlie Parker’s Little Willie Leaps, and I also liked their takes on Wayne Shorter’s JuJu and Herbie Nichols’ House Party Starting. I don’t think this is really my sort of style in general, but there were definitely parts of this album that I did enjoy.
