Edinburgh Jazz Festival

Alessandro Lanzoni Trio

Rose Theatre

Rob Adams

three stars

IF THE Alessandro Lanzoni Trio’s opening number sounded like the beginning of a conversation, then that was more or less the case. The Italian pianist had formed a new group for the occasion of his first visit to Edinburgh and had given it the name Black Lodge in honour of his fondness for Twin Peaks in general and Laura Palmer in particular.

That opening piece, before he’d shared this news with us (and the festival, apparently), had shades of another heroine, Judy Garland, as it seemed to reference, obliquely, Over the Rainbow. As Lanzoni and his bassist and drummer engaged in a collective improvisation they produced moments of theatre – a stray drumstick being retrieved by a chap in the front row helped to break the ice – and wit, with the pianist introducing the theme to John Coltrane’s Resolution as if to suggest this was where they’d been heading all along. Perhaps it was.

More witty still was Lanzoni’s interpretation of Bye Bye Blackbird as the final number, a version that showed his advertised touch to good effect and showed the trio coalescing and taking turns to initiate changes in direction in an ultimately enjoyable, if not entirely convincing, set.

Also receiving a first airing was guitarist Graeme Stephen’s new project with fiddler Aidan O’Rourke at the Traverse. This was actually Stephen’s long-time trio, featuring bassist Mario Caribe and drummer Tom Bancroft, with an added ingredient, so even freshly composed music motored and danced with confident locomotion and verve. International folk influences, Stephen’s trademark sense of brilliantly realised melodic discovery, shrewdly applied electronica, and an exciting element of order from near-chaos marked an outstanding success.