By Michael Ullman

Made up of a Californian, a Palestinian, and a native of Cyprus, Ize Trio is about probing into the meaning of cultural differences as well as learning each other’s personal characteristics.

Ize Trio: The Global Suites (Self-released)

On July 27, I heard the remarkable Ize Trio live at the Goethe Institut in Boston. They were celebrating the release of their new compact disc, The Global Suites, and their own, somewhat intermeshed, identities. Made up of a Californian (pianist Chase Morrin), a Palestinian (cellist Naseem Alatrash), and a native of Cyprus (percussionist George Lernis), the group took its name from the tail end of words that are meaningful to its members: Improvize, Humanize, Harmonize, and Empathize. They are exuberantly and deliberately international, dedicated to finding new ways to meld their various musical and cultural traditions. Their pieces are meant to have a political edge. The band came together at Berklee College in a program created by pianist Danilo Perez’s “Global Jazz Institute.” (At the Goethe Institut concert their mentor, Perez, was sitting front row center,) They have considered themselves a group since 2019.

Thanks to Covid, the road has been rather rocky. During that year they made a recording, each playing in his own bedroom. They issued a single, “Global Prayer”. Reconvening in 2020, they continued to learn about each other’s musical traditions. Live and on record, they focus on “social themes”. They have performed at the United Nations: their existence as a group is about probing into the meaning of cultural differences as well as learning each other’s personal characteristics.

Performing live, they were exciting, playing complex compositions in various arrangements before letting it all go in torrents of improvisation. Often a piece would begin with Morrin’s solo piano, and then a crack from the talking drum would arrive. Lernis was a wonder to behold as he alternated strong accents on his hand drum with the quick rattle of his fingers on the skins. Lernis used the cymbals in front of him just for color, providing deft accents that seemed to break the tension. (His hi-hat were there for the sake of appearance, I thought: until he used it once as a distant tribute, perhaps, to bebop.) At the same time, Lernis maintained the basic beat via a ring of bells around his ankle. In accompaniment, Morrin was equally forceful, sometimes playing simple percussive chords before entering into conversations with his drummer. There was sentiment as well. Cellist Alatrash introduced one piece (I believe it was “Echoes on the Wall,” also played on the disc) with a long, emotional, bowed solo that drew on scales that I assume are Palestinian. It was sweet as well as faintly exotic. The cellist ended with a series of sighing phrases that brought in Morrin’s piano. The members constantly made room for each other in their playing, sometimes even during their most excited moments, exercising what in jazz would be called trading fours. Ize Trio harmonized the different traditions of its members while keeping true to themselves. The musicians got a little wild as well, in long crescendos of improvised passages that were a testimony to their years of work together.

The Global Suites was recorded a year ago thanks to a Berklee Faculty Recording Grant. (Both Morrin and Alatrash are Berklee faculty members.) There are four suites, each with an ideological or social agenda. The first suite is “Break G4S”, whose first movement, “The Machine,” begins “in a place of anger.” One person’s rage is another’s amusement, it would seem. “The Machine” begins with a bouncy theme statement by the bowed cello over the hand drum. Morrin takes over briefly as we move into a different scale. My guess is that what sounds to me like a succession of keys is meant to suggest a potential conflict. The section ends with Morrin playing an arpeggio that leads into the next piece. The eerie “Echoes on the Wall” follows. It begins with Morrin and Lernis playing a repeated rhythmic phrase while the cello leads with a lovely series of melodies: eventually this episode leads to interchanges between cello and piano, a change in tempo, and then a new statement with all three musicians: it’s called “Let Us Out”.

The next suite, “Resurrecting the Amber Sky”, is about global warming and environmental damage. The composition begins with a welcome surprise: vocals and a solo by another star mentor, guest bassist John Patitucci. Singers Farayi Malek and Heiraza also enliven “Past and Future“, in which the musicians attempt to imagine the world before mankind clamoured aboard and then going on to suggest a hopeful future. (The lyrics are by Chase Morrin.) The suite “All Loved” is about a crucial topic to these players: immigration. It begins with a gentle improvisation by Alatrash. The title of the last suite, “Elemeno”, is a bit of a joke: say it aloud and you’ll get the idea. The piece begins with a percussion solo by Lernis. It is meant to suggest one of the cheery sides of education: the energy of kids. It opens with what the notes tell us are twenty tracks of percussion. The impression is that you are listening to an elementary school playground, except that everyone is going in the same direction. Global Suites is something different — and very welcome.

For over 30 years, Michael Ullman has written a bimonthly jazz column for Fanfare Magazine, for which he also reviews classical music. He has emeritus status at Tufts University, where for 45 years he taught in the English and Music Departments, specializing in modernist writers and nonfiction writing in English, and jazz and blues history in music. He studied classical clarinet. The author or co-author of two books on jazz, he has written on jazz and classical music for the Atlantic Monthly, New Republic, High Fidelity, Stereophile, Boston Phoenix, Boston Globe, and other venues. He plays piano badly.