Jason Stein's Locksmith Isidore - Three Kinds of Happiness

Jason Stein's Locksmith Isidore
Three Kinds of Happiness

Label: NotTwo, 2010
Catalogue No: MW 846-2
Format: CD

I'm super excited for this album to come out. It's kind of a new beginning for this band, with more of a focus on stylized composition and improvisation. Roebke and Pride sound amazing. This record is definitely our best work yet.
(Jason Stein)

Tracks:

1. Crayons For Sammy [06:50]
2. Cash, Couch And Camper [09:06]
3. Little Bird
4. Ground Floor South [07:20]
5. Arch And Shipp [09:17]
6. More Gone Door Gone [07:18]
7. Man Or Ray [06:10]
8. Miss Izzy [08:47]

Line-up:

Jason Stein - bass clarinet
Jason Roebke - bass
Mike Pride - drums

Recorded:

Recorded October 15&16, 2009 at The Shape Shoppe, Chicago IL, except track #8 recorded at the Alchemia, Krakow, Poland, September 20, 2008

Reviews:

Stein stands apart from the standard instrumental lineage. Whereas a player like Eric Dolphy or Michel Portal builds on wide intervallic leaps and verticality, Stein (like Michel Pilz, Rudi Mahall or John Tchicai) operates in a horizontal fashion, favoring a breadth of twists and turns more sideways than anything else, woven into a post-Ornette fabric.
(Clifford Allen, All About Jazz)

*****

Stein, Roebke, and Pride fed on the chamber-like intensity of the sparsely intimate space with a brilliantly tight set.
(Michael Jackson, Downbeat, September 2010)

*****

Locksmith Isidore if bass clarinetist Jason Stein's trio with Jason Roebke on bass and Mike Pride on drums, playing a classy thoughtful blend of free jazz and more mainstream improvisation, music that would fit in well at a jazz club or art-house performance space. Stein has a strong woody tone that permeates the recording, while Roebke and Pride create a shifting and continually moving foundation that simultaneously supports and challenges the leader. They play with a light touch that keeps the music agile throughout. The faster tracks move in a quicksilver fashion with the musicians performing as a unified organism, while the slower and spacier improvisations allow more opportunity for individual expression. "Arch and Shipp" seemingly dedicated to Archie Shepp and Matthew Shipp is a highlight, acknowledging Shepp's earthy growl and Shipp's icy spaciousness and combining them into a lengthy and fascinating exploration of modern jazz, past and present. Wrapping up with the live track "Miss Izzy" the group goes full out with a tasty collective improvisation that draws on inner strength, and projects it outward in a strong and aggressive manner. Stein plays a demanding instrument in a unique and individual way. Eric Dolphy and David Murray have made definitive statements on this instrument and Stein seems well on his way to making truly memorable music as well.
(Timothy G. Niland, jazzandblues.blogspot)