Uncharted Territory RICH KASS& EVELYN GLENNIE
Trio HLK is not your ordinary jazz trio. They may not even be a jazz trio at all, in any conventional sense. Comprised of Rich Kass on the drums, eight-string guitarist Ant Law and contemporary classical pianist Richard Harrold (sometimes referred to as Piano Rich), the group transcends genres and boundaries, taking jazz standards, dismantling them and then putting them back together in the most unexpected ways.
“Everybody’s like a drummer in this band,” says Kass, who juggles polyrhythms and multiple meters in a manner best described as mindboggling. “Everybody is very rhythmically aware, very rhythmically strong, and is using rhythm, particularly in odd time signatures that are changing every bar, to open that up and speak across it.”
On their debut album, Standard Time, the trio are joined by percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie who guests on their arrangement of both ‘Extra Sensory Perception’, and the album’s closing track, ‘The Jig’.
“Rich Harrold asked if I would like to participate,” says Glennie, who found herself moving into an unfamiliar musical world. “Jokingly – because a lot of effort went into learning the pieces – I said, ‘Wouldn’t it be fun to do this live?’ The next thing I knew, concerts had been booked, and I was asked would I like to join them. It’s been a fantastic experience.”
Finding new life on stage, the trio-plus-one explore the unique language they created in the studio, taking the art of rhythm into places where most fear to tread. Their gigs attract an audience as uncategorisable as their