Giovanni Guidi

Avec le temps is the third ECM album as leader by Italian pianist Giovanni Guidi, recorded by his regular trio and, on most tracks, by a quintet built around it. It begins with Léo Ferré's chanson of love and loss, the only piece here not written by Guidi or the band, and ends with Tomasz, a farewell to the Polish trumpeter Tomasz Stanko, who died in July 2018. Between those two bookends the music swings from songful calm to free, abrasive group playing.

The core is the trio heard on City of Broken Dreams and This Is The Day, with American bassist Thomas Morgan and Portuguese drummer João Lobo. On six of the eight tracks they are joined by tenor saxophonist Francesco Bearzatti and guitarist Roberto Cecchetto, both long-time associates of the pianist. The album was recorded in November 2017 at Studios La Buissonne in Pernes-les-Fontaines, engineered by Gérard de Haro, mixed in July 2018 and produced by Manfred Eicher.

The title track keeps Ferré's melody in view while the trio stretches and decorates it, Morgan picking out wistful lines towards the end. Postludium And A Kiss, one of two collective improvisations, starts from introspective piano and is pushed by squalling saxophone and guitar into a racing tumult. Ti Stimo is built on a simple, folk-like motif that Cecchetto plays with great tenderness, Lobo brushing the edges of his cymbals beneath him. The closing Tomasz returns to the trio for a slow, lyrical meditation with an extended outro that seems unwilling to end.

Reviewers praised the balance between lyricism and risk. Thom Jurek at AllMusic called Guidi "one of ECM's more compelling pianists", noting a dedication to lyricism weighed against his restless will to improvise. On his blog The Blue Moment, Richard Williams described Ferré's song as "one of the most exquisite sad songs ever written" and called the group one of the finest in contemporary jazz. Simon Adams in Jazz Journal singled out Guidi's romantic flow on Caino and his restraint on Johnny The Liar.

This is the CD edition, ECM 2604, released on 22 March 2019.