Alex Collins/Ryan Berg/Karl Latham | Together
(Drop Zone Jazz Records)
Together is the debut recording of a trio featuring pianist Alex Collins, bassist Ryan Berg, and Warwick-based drummer Karl Latham. Recorded at Latham’s Firefly Studios, the group essays a brace of modern jazz standards with taste and occasional formal deviations—that these detours don’t always work takes nothing away from these musicians’ adventurousness, nor their impeccable technique. Collins unpacks brisk, darting lines throughout but often leans on devices like repeated figures and block transposition of motifs which feel like inorganic digressions—he’s heard to most moving effect on the long overture to “Polka Dots and Moonbeams.” Berg’s savory tone and melodic ingenuity take the lead on his solos for the opener “Stella by Starlight” and “On Green Dolphin Street.” Latham, also producer for this recording, finds dynamic expression across the entirety of his kit throughout, keeping the proceedings hard-swinging and, even in its most elastic moments, together.
This article appears in February 2022.
