The Netherlands-based AVA Trio – Italian baritone sax player and wind instruments player Giuseppe Doronzo, Turkish-Dutch double bass player Esat Ekincioglu and Swiss percussionist Giuseppe «Pino» Basile, defines its music as Mediterranean avantgarde and the trio as guides who navigate through the rich and diverse sonic surroundings of the Mediterranean. The Great Green is the fourth album of the trio that began working in 2015 and is titled after the name the Greek fishermen called the Mediterranean Sea. The album was recorded at Limbo Studios in Groningen in January 2023.

The Great Green is a four-part, musical journey. AVA Trio mentions that in ancient Greece the color blue did not exist, but insists that the search for the precise color ignites a psychedelic journey that begins with tasting the tears of Didima (the ancient Greek sanctuary with the temple dedicated to Apollo and his twin Artemis, as the first piece is titled). An escape from Didima’s Maze (as the following piece is titled) leads back to the vast waters of The Great Green. The third piece brings us to the island of Timanfaya (today a Spanish national park in the Canary Islands, the title of the third piece) and this adventurous and colorful journey ends with Tsamikos (the title of the fourth and last piece), a popular traditional Greek folk dance.

AVA Trio takes the ancient and more modern folk music traditions of the Mediterranean, including Arabic and Turkish maqam-based music, into modern jazz and free improvised music. The music of The Great Green is full of uplifting energy and the trio ornaments the exotic stories with passionate spirit and intoxicating, dance-like rhythmic patterns. AVA Trio respects the musical traditions of the Mediterranean but on its quest of archeo-musicology has a great sense of liberating and playful freedom.

Eyal Hareuveni

Giuseppe Doronzo (baritone saxophone, ney anbān, longar double flute), Esat Ekincioglu (double bass), Pino Basile (frame drums, tamburello, percussion)