Mike Nock Trio

By any standards, a remarkable trio.

Mike Nock can count on an ultra-responsive, flexible and willing rhythm section that can play “outside” with ferocious intensity (sometimes for an entire set) or be playful, lyrical and romantic.

It’s well known that Nock has a very strong sense of where he wants the music to go and how that journey should be undertaken, yet both Brett Hirst (bass) and Toby Hall (drums) make their own telling contributions to the group in ways that might seem at first to be independent of the leader yet ultimately help produce music that can only be the result of a shared aesthetic.

Based on the recorded evidence of his latest CD, Changing Seasons (DIW) – probably his best recording in recent years – Nock’s powers of invention are as strong as ever, but then no-one who catches the band live, on a regular basis, would ever have doubted this. It’s a band for all seasons.

“Nock’s ringing iconoclasm pervades all his music, taps a deep well of melody that transcends jazz and informs and ignites his every encounter.” – Fred Bouchard, Down Beat (USA).