The Ashley Adams Trio
Flowers for Mrs. Dalloway, inspired by Virginia Woolf's novel, marks bassist Ashley Adams' recording debut. Her trio with multi-instrumentalist Phillip Greenlief and drummer Michel Dumonceau weaves a musical narrative as sensuous and free-flowing as the writer's own. Adopting the episodic structure of Woolf's story line as the organizational framework for this hourlong piece, the group arranges an essentially three-part suite into 13 sub-units with an enviably clear, seamless focus. Each section moves in dreamy legato, developing thematically from the preceding ones without digression. This could be attributed to the bassist's training in the classical milieu, which also may explain her fat-toned lyricism and supreme tunefulness in both pizzicato and arco modes. Adams' foundation provides Greenlief with an exceptional format for stretching his melodic muse on flute, trumpet, and multiple saxes from baritone to soprano. The spare tastefulness of Dumonceau's drumming underscores the group aesthetic. But don't get the wrong idea. This is not minimal diatonic ennui for the comatose. Even the silent spaces between the notes somehow ring out with a lushness that goes beyond mere overtones. And in this ambiguous limbo, the music commands full attention.
-- Sam Prestianni
The Ashley Adams Trio appears on Sunday, May 25, from 2 to 5 p.m. at the Roast, 2960 Cesar Chavez (at Bryant). Free admission; call 282-3153.
