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In Bristol, it all started happily enough, with video images of scudding clouds forming a background to the opening number, another lightly chilled groove. Except the groove didn't last very long before giving way to a longish piano solo by Svensson His solo didn't seem to be going anywhere, either. But, what the hell, it was only the first number.Then the second and third numbers didn't appear to go anywhere either. Searching for a distraction, one began to notice other disturbing signs: the fact that the excellent drummer Magnus Ostrom's normally modest kit had apparently sprouted several add-ons; that the physical distance between the three players - whose close proximity on stage was an essential part of the group's identity - had grown considerably larger; that Svensson and bassist Dan Berglund didn't appear to be looking at each other very much. Along with the porcine double-takes and loopy eye-rolling of heritage opera buffo, much of the charm and wit of this acidic little opera has been lost. In the pre-publicity for his new production of La Cenerentola, Glyndebourne veteran Sir Peter Hall announced that he would not be playing for laughs.
It is fair to say that he has stuck to his guns in this respect, for a grumpier Cenerentola would be hard to find. Then, you're reminded of the best piano trios ever: Ahmad Jamal, Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett.Well, that's the theory. But what about the practice? On a major tour of larger halls, est appeared to have some worrying problems. It's an approach that also fulfils an honourable and historical jazz function. Like the popular trios of George Shearing, Dudley Moore and Jacques Loussier before them, est make relaxing music with plenty of space for the imagination of the listener to roam in.
But what's really great is when the communication between the players allows them to punch above their weight. Over a longish series of albums for the German ACT label, the group has perfected a lightly chilled, intensely textured style where the constituent parts of piano, double bass and drums work together rather than separately, with each individual content to serve the greater collective goal of the ensemble. Fussy solos are kept to a minimum and there's a satisfyingly functional air to proceedings, emphasised by the group's melodic, faintly melancholy, grooves. The lower-case Swedish piano trio est (Esbjorn Svensson Trio, geddit?) has carved out an enviable niche in the European jazz market by making improvisation relatively painless for audiences and musicians alike. In these there was a sense that you were seeing programming that could not be matched in any other British opera house: a collective imagining distinctive enough to keep you intellectually and emotionally engaged throughout the champagne and air-kissing, and the unwrapping, consuming, spilling and repacking of the long dinner interval. On current form, it's just Garsington and Grange Park with better facilities.a.picard independent.co.uk'La Cenerentola' and 'Die Zauberfl?: Glyndebourne Festival Opera, East Sussex (01273 813813), to 16 July and 10 July respectively.
