Tres Hongos (Three Mushrooms in Spanish) is the free improvising trio of American, Mexico City-based experimental trumpeter Jacob Wick, whose work is dedicated to and informed by queer feelings and queer politics; Los Angeles-based pianist (and drummer) Marc Riordan, who is describes as carrying «the difficult musical obstacle of virtuosity»; and Puerto Rican, Amsterdam-based drummer (and sound designer) Frank Rosaly, whose extensive studies of jazz, classical percussion, and free-improvised music filtered through the prism of ritual and folklore of Latin America and the Caribbean, as he navigates his Puerto Rican roots.
Tres Hongos has been working since 2010, but More Chips is Tres Hongos’ only third album, and it was recorded live at ZAAL 100 in Amsterdam in April 2024. This trio relies on the idiosyncratic improvisers’ deep trust and understanding, as its music comprises quick contrasts, sharp turns, and vivid textures, where ideas splinter, collide, and reform in real time. Often, Wick suggests a sharp melodic idea, only to twist it with his searching trumpet lines; Riordan’s fractured piano gestures and his brief quotes of childlike themes add another chaotic dimension to the interplay; Rosaly anchors their elusive ideas with nimble, unpredictable rhythmic motion.
More Chips offers an intense, subversive, and disruptive journey that flirts with Dadaist chaos and navigates the edge of structure and spontaneity, but is performed with daring precision. Tres Hongos’s surreal dances have their own intuitive, labyrinthian inner logic, never settling into familiar forms or narratives, and at times sound as if they keep circling themselves. But Tres Hongos’ intricate interplay can also sketch surprisingly profound, openly emotional, yet thoughtful textures with only a few bold sonic strokes, as on the last, touching piece, «Midnight, They Love You». This kind of demanding dynamics keeps Wick, Riordan, and Rosaly on their toes throughout this playful and inventive performance.
Eyal Hareuveni
Jacob Wick (trumpet), Marc Riordan (piano), Frank Rosaly (drums)
