American, Brooklyn and Berlin-based jazz drummer-composer Devin Gray presented his trio Melt All the Guns trio in 2019 with the self-titled debut EP, featuring American pianist Angelica Sanchez and trumpeter Ralph Alessi (Rataplan, 2021). The second incarnation of the trio features Alessi and a disciple of Alessi, young French Pianist Myslaure Augustin. The album Melt All the Guns II was recorded at Mazzive Sound in Biel, Switzerland in June 2024, and like the debut album of the trio, it is released by Gray’s label, Rataplan Records.

The title of this trio reflects Gray’s frustration over the seemingly endless gun violence in the United States. Gray composed eleven short pieces for the new album, a few with politically leaning titles («No More Walls», («More Meritocracy» and «Audre Lorde Straße» which is named for a Berlin street that recognizes an American poet, feminist and civil rights activist), and all suggest his intricate, inventive rhythmic patterns and strong melodic themes. Gray claims the trio’s music is «all about positivity, with the idea of exploring and sharing».

The trio sounds like a much bigger band, as a unit that has been working for years cementing Gray’s focus on collaborative Formats It bursts with uplifting energy and tight, playful and conversational dynamics. The absence of a bass player frees up the harmonic possibilities and leaves more space for the extrovert Alessi who takes the leading role and shines throughout this album with his great melodic sensibility and his spontaneous improvisation ideas that shape the pieces and add depth and imagination to Gray’s compositions (check the beautiful ballads «No More Walls» and «Broom Lyfe») while Augustin expands and intensifies Gray’s melodic hooks and grooves. It is a «truly handmade, an artisanal, human creation», as Gray says. Powerful music that motivates and asks us to wake up, aesthetically and culturally, heart and mind.

Eyal Hareuveni

Ralph Alessi (trumpet), Myslaure Augustin (piano), Devin Gray (drums)