Third Round is the third ECM album by the French-African drummer Manu Katché, and the first with an entirely new band. It pursues what The Guardian had called his programme of "beautifully mutated grooves and jazzy themes". The eleven tunes are all his, built on clear melodies and a light, mobile pulse, and the sound now includes electric bass and Fender Rhodes beside acoustic piano and saxophone. Only Stay With You has words, written by Kami Lyle.
Katché came to wide attention drumming for Peter Gabriel and Sting, and his earlier ECM albums, Neighbourhood (2004) and Playground (2007), had featured Polish and Norwegian players. The core here is the Norwegian saxophonist Tore Brunborg on tenor and soprano and the British pianist Jason Rebello, a colleague from Sting's band. On bass is Pino Palladino, with whom Katché shares a long history as a session musician. It was Palladino's first appearance on ECM. Guitarist Jacob Young guests on three pieces and Lyle adds trumpet and voice on two. The album was recorded in December 2009 at Studios La Buissonne in Pernes-les-Fontaines, engineered by Gérard de Haro and Nicolas Baillard and produced by Manfred Eicher.
Swing Piece opens with Rebello alone, in a languid mood, before saxophone and bass set the pulse, and the swing of the title is not the traditional kind. On Shine and Blue Palladino lays down a funky electric bass line under Rebello's Rhodes and a bright acoustic piano solo. Being Ben hangs on a simple, catchy hook that Brunborg and Rebello develop over Katché's detailed drumming. Stay With You has a light gospel touch. The closing Urban Shadow is a short ballad on which Katché does not play at all.
Several critics singled out Katché's cymbals. For Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim in The Wall Street Journal, "under his hands, a cymbal can tell a story, provide a counterpoint to a melodic line, or become an extension of the harmony". Phil Johnson in the Independent on Sunday heard "contemporary jazz that anyone could like", with strong yet open themes and unshowy brilliance.
This is the CD edition, ECM 2156, first released on 19 March 2010.
