Jazz Journal

London Jazz Festival: Charles Lloyd’s Ocean Trio / Mette Henriette at Barbican Hall

At the age of 85 Lloyd once again lived down charges of going commercial while the young Henriette went straight to chamber jazz

(…) The evening was intended to illustrate new approaches to the trio configuration, including the omission of a drummer. The support act was led by Sami-Norwegian saxophonist Mette Henriette and was completed by Johan Lindvall (piano) and Judith Hamann (cello). Henriette has tackled a wide-range of genres. Their set concentrated on the music from the trio’s recent ECM album, Drifting.

It seemed to me that, as so often in Scandinavian jazz and improv, there were subtle echoes of traditional folk music, but certainly the performance had the overall feel of classical chamber music. Whichever, the performance was utterly spellbinding, keeping the members of the huge audience in the cavernous hall as enthralled and emotionally involved as if we were in an intimate venue, focused on the most delicate of gestures. The trio’s interplay, though doubtless achieved through much hard work and experience, seemed instinctive and magical.

— Barry Witherden, Jazz Journal

https://jazzjournal.co.uk/2023/11/20/ljf-2023-charles-lloyds-ocean-trio-mette-henriette-trio/