Eric Revis Trio, Crowded Solitudes

New albums by bassist Eric Revis have become something of an occasion to me. The latest gives us a fabulous trio effort of Eric with pianist Kris Davis and drummer Gerald Cleaver. Crowded Solitudes (Clean Feed 363) is a smartly burning set that brings out the best in Eric with plenty of full blown expressive thrust, some whip-crackingly precise yet vastly expressive, soulfully out Kris Davis, and a roll-and-tumble propulsion and dynamic energy from Gerald Cleaver.

A young Rio Sebastian Revis gives us a very musical speech statement which sounds almost Chinese and serves as the compositional impetus for the fascinating "Bontain." We get some collectively devised pieces, a few by Revis alone, one by Paul Motian (RIP) you may well recognize and yet another by Greg Osby.

The threesome are on a roll throughout, everybody pulling much weight and punching out with a determined brilliance--to mix metaphors. Davis reminds us how central she is now, but so do Eric and Gerald.

This is determined collective-self-music of a beautiful edginess. A fantastic set.

Hear it. Get it. And you will no doubt get it and get with it. I am not kidding!