John Abercrombie: Gateway (LP Luminessence Series)

LP from the "Luminessence" Series. CD from the "Touchstones" Series. With “daring and visionary spirit”, to quote a Downbeat review from the year of this album’s release, master improvisers John Abercrombie, Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette forged a unique vision of trio interplay on their first joint effort under the Gateway moniker. The trio tackles Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette originals with a visionary idea of what three-way conversations in jazz could sound like. As The Observer remarked in an article of the time, “the telepathic ensemble playing and perfect execution make it difficult to believe that this music is almost completely improvised”. The players’ respectively unique instrumental signatures had already fully crystallised here, hinting at the music to come. The Luminessence edition of the album arrives in a Tip-on gatefold, complete with previously unseen archival photos and new liner notes by Wilco’s Nels Cline. One thing most recordings on the label share in common is the capturing of special moments in real time. That is what “Gateway” is, what it feels like so many years later, for as long as we have ears to listen. – from the liner notes by Nels Cline