John Patitucci : Spirit Fall Review

by Steven Miller

John Patitucci’s Spirit Fall is an album based on trio communication, a study of the freedom and responsibility of a chordless format, and what happens when three deeply intuitive musicians explore the boundless harmonic and rhythmic possibilities. Marking Patitucci’s debut as a leader on Edition Records, the album finds the bassist alongside long-standing collaborators Chris Potter (saxophones, bass clarinet) and Brian Blade (drums), exploring a set of nine Patitucci originals and one cover with remarkable spontaneity and depth.

Trio records that omit a chordal instrument come with a built-in challenge: how to create a full, harmonically rich sound without piano or guitar? The answer, in the hands of these musicians, lies in implication, counterpoint, and understanding of rhythm. The absence of a comping instrument frees the trio from harmonic rigidity, allowing for a more elastic and interpretive approach to form. Patitucci, Potter, and Blade thrive in this environment, treating each piece as a dynamic conversation rather than a series of structured roles.

Without a pianist anchoring the changes, harmony becomes fluid, shaped moment-to-moment by Patitucci’s bass lines, Potter’s melodic coloring, and Blade’s subtle rhythmic cues. The trio builds and deconstructs harmonic frameworks in real-time, sometimes implying a traditional progression, sometimes suspending it entirely in favor of texture and rhythmic exploration.

Patitucci is, of course, the axis around which this trio turns. On both acoustic and electric bass, he moves between roles with seamless agility, anchoring the groove, implying harmony, and stepping forward as a primary melodic voice. Few bassists possess his level of technical command, and even fewer can balance virtuosity with such a deep commitment to the music’s emotional core on the acoustic and electric bass.

On “Spirit Fall” and “Thoughts and Dreams,” Patitucci uses his six-string electric bass to stunning effect, employing lush chordal voicings that effectively serve as harmonic scaffolding in the absence of a piano. His electric playing takes advantage of the expanding range of the six-string bass. He alternates between deep foundational pulses, shimmering sustained harmonies, and blistering single-note lines, sometimes all within a single passage. His ability to provide the illusion of a larger ensemble within this stripped-down format is one of the album’s defining achievements.

Patitucci’s upright playing is just as crucial to the trio’s balance. On “Pole Star,” his bass is an anchor and a counter-melody, responding to Potter’s phrasing with carefully placed intervals that suggest harmonic movement rather than dictate it outright. His rhythmic precision allows Blade to paint freely with dynamic shading, while his note choices create a gravitational pull for Potter’s improvisations, ensuring the music never drifts aimlessly.

Spirit Fall captures the exceptional individual brilliance of its players and their telepathic ability to anticipate and respond to one another. Blade, a master of nuance, shapes the music as much through restraint as through propulsion. His touch ranges from whispering cymbal textures to explosive polyrhythmic flourishes, always serving the emotional contour of the piece rather than imposing his presence upon it. “Silent Prayer” shows his use of space is just as vital as his use of sound, allowing the trio to explore a dynamic rhythmic universe.

Potter, too, understands the power of economy in this setting. His saxophone lines often function as the missing puzzle piece in Patitucci’s harmonic constructions, locking into tight unisons before breaking away into sinuous counter-lines. His tenor work on “Think Fast” brims with modern jazz urgency, while his soprano playing on “House of Jade” evokes the ethereal quality of Wayne Shorter, to whom the piece pays tribute. He colors outside the jazz norm with subtle electronic effects on the funk-inflected “Lipím,” adding an unexpected textural dimension without disrupting the organic flow of the trio’s dialogue.

In the lineage of chordless trios, from Sonny Rollins’ Way Out West to Joe Henderson’s Standard Joe and beyond, Spirit Fall has an identity of building on tradition with a modern sonic reference. This is an exploration of what it means to listen, to trust, and to create in the moment. Patitucci, Potter, and Blade have crafted a record that is stimulating and shows that communication between musicians creates the most resounding harmony of all.