3 Squares
3 Squares
3 Squares, founded by David Vincent Mills with life long friend and musical colleague, bassist Daren Burns, and long time friend and musical colleague, drummer Craig Bunch, is a progressive instrumental jazz trio, who has played together for over twenty years, that embraces the tradition of jazz by composing original works as vehicles for improvisation. At the group's core is the desire to integrate different musical styles through experimentation to discover the interplay between those styles in the hopes of revealing a new voice. Each of the band members not only draws influences from traditional Western music, such as jazz, classical, rock, and funk, but they also tap into other various musical genres of the world for inspiration including African, Asian, Indian, Eastern European, Middle Eastern, and Native American. In addition, by using conventional instruments of a jazz trio, modern electronics, and unconventional instruments such as melodica and toy piano, 3 Squares bridges cultural traditions of the past with present day technology with the goal of creating something unique that represents the contemporary world we live in.
CD Review
January 30, 2010
Jerome Wilson - Cadence
Going by their name, you’d expect 3 Squares to be another of those “quirky” Rock-based Bad Plus-type piano trios, but that’s not quite the case. There is a little progressive Rock bashing on (Have We Met?) but mostly there is a more deliberate group feel that resembles some of Carla Bley’s groups. David Vincent Mills’ piano has some of Bley’s simple and elemental style and Daren Burns is one of the few younger electric bass players I’ve heard who owes more to Steve Swallow than Stanley Clarke or Jaco Pastorius. That relentless Bley feel carries through the title track, “What Do You Know,” “Seven & Seven,” and the lazy Blues “I Wish It Was.” There is also the aforementioned prog bashing on “Ear Caving Dread” and some Middle Eastern exotica on “Ashram” and “Marwa” but mostly this music is a series of distinctive musical conversations drawn out of very basic materials, a sound that gives this band its own identity.
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