Twio - Walter Smith III

Twio is a tenor saxophone trio album that strips the music down to saxophone, bass, and drums, foregrounding Walter Smith III's supple, blues-rooted tone and melodic sensibility. Released on Whirlwind Recordings, the album features a core trio of Smith with bassist Harish Raghavan and drummer Eric Harland, augmented on several tracks by guest bassist Christian McBride and tenor saxophonist Joshua Redman. The program consists almost entirely of standards, including Thelonious Monk's "Ask Me Now," Wayne Shorter's "Adam's Apple," Jimmy Rowles' "The Peacocks," and Ferde Grofe's "On the Trail," with Smith's own "Contrafact" — built on the changes of "Like Someone in Love" — as the sole original. Smith's fifth album as a leader, Twio arrived after years of sideman work with Roy Haynes, Terence Blanchard, Ambrose Akinmusire, and McBride's own groups, and it served as a deliberate refocusing on his voice as an improviser. DownBeat named it an Editor's Pick, praising the trio's tight interplay and Smith's "vast and beautiful flow of ideas," while Germany's Fono Forum awarded it five stars. The tracks with Redman create a two-tenor dialogue that gives the album textural variety, particularly on "On the Trail," where the two saxophonists trade over Grofe's buoyant melody.