Music

Pericopes Trio

Swing, Glasgow

Keith Bruce

DRUMMER Nick Wight, the more recent US addition to the Italian partnership of saxophonist Emiliano Vernizzi and pianist Alessandro Sgobbio, likes to keep the audience fully informed about the story of the group. What starts out seeming like over-sharing is worth giving attention, because Wight's polite East Coast way always has a thoughtful destination.

Probably not by coincidence, that is exactly how the music of the Pericopes Trio works as well. At times frighteningly complex and fond of an esoteric time signature, elsewhere it basks in the joy of a straight-ahead funky rhythmic riff. Both Vernizzi and Sgobbio can be speedily articulate on their instruments, but both are also well versed in the virtue of the single apposite note, repeated at considered intervals. Sgobbio in particular is also hugely entertaining to watch as he builds through his prog-rock influenced improvisations.

Early material like 2012's Red Sand Town seems spare in conception when compared with pieces like the trio of tracks (Through Piat, Bladwin and Jersey Zombies) that open the three piece's only album so far, last year's These Human Beings, which showcases the whole band at full stretch. The pieces the trio perform that are even newer very clearly demonstrate a further step forward.

As does the new partnership between the classy basement club in Hope Street and Bill Kyle's Bridge Music jazz promotions, which seems a little like a couple of old friends hooking up for a relationship you pray lasts. After a Tuesday evening jam session, the Elusive Tree Sextet play on Friday, rounding off a packed opening week.

Pericopes, meanwhile, play Aberdeen's Blue Lamp on Thursday as part of the Sound festival and are at Kyle's Jazz Bar in Edinburgh on Friday.