GPS is a new American, New York-based, chamber free improvising trio featuring Argentinian-American veteran clarinetist Guillermo Gregorio (b. 1941. who is also a graphic artist, art and architecture historian), with younger American double bass player Charley Sabatino and alto sax player Jeff Pearring. Directions + Destinations is GPS’ debut album, and it was recorded in two sessions a year apart in August 2023 and November 2024 at Park West Studios in New York.
Directions + Destinations features fourteen short pieces, mostly concise and melodic ones, where GPS alternates between loose, composed outlines and spontaneous improvisations. With each piece, GPS shapes anew its egalitarian dynamics as well as the interplay of its unorthodox, chamber instrumentation. Gregorio, Sabatino, and Pearring trust their instincts but rely on deep listening and deep camaraderie.
The free improvised,18-minute centerpiece «The Crooked Mile» captures GPS at its best. This piece stresses GPS’ strong individual voices as they dance around each other, enjoy the generous interplay, and keep feeding the emphatic interplay with unpredictable, inventive ideas and surprising gestures, without losing focus on form and texture. The music is thoughtful and genre-defying, touching Gregorio’s previous experimental Thirs Stream works, referencing Jimmy Guiffre’s seminal trio (with Paul Bley and Steve Swallow) and his school of chamber jazz, and contemporary music, but flows organically and sounds fresh, bold, and urgent.
Eyal Hareuveni
Guillermo Gregorio (clarinet), Jeff Pearring (alto saxophone), Charley Sabatino (double bass)
