An adventurous improviser with a fat, warm tone, cornetist Kirk Knuffke takes his bold jazz style to another level on 2022's Gravity Without Airs. The Colorado-born/New York-based Knuffke has carved out a distinctive niche in the modern jazz landscape with his artful duo and trio albums. He has also been a vital member of creative ensembles like drummer Matt Wilson's Big Happy Family and drummer Allison Miller's Boom Tic Boom. Here, he is joined by two stellar veteran performers in pianist Matthew Shipp and bassist Michael Bisio, essentially two-thirds of Shipp's trio as of 2009 (minus drummer Newman Taylor-Baker). Knuffke's pairing here with Shipp feels intrinsic and spiritually connected to the pianist's early work as a member of saxophonist David S. Ware's ensembles. What's particularly engaging about the group's work is just how organically balanced it is. While Knuffke certainly grabs the lion's share of the spotlight, many of his compositions hinge upon the trio's dynamic interplay and the raw, textural landscapes they carve out together. In fact, the first sound you hear on the opening title track is a scratchy, strummed chord from Bisio that Shipp quickly augments with an airy, off-kilter harmony. All of this leads to Knuffke's mournful, breathy entrance, his minor-key melody a streak of golden light in the trio's swirling storm clouds. They sustain an equally imagistic vibe throughout the rest of the album, straddling the line between free-jazz tone poems and moody, architectural chamber jazz. Knuffke is a dynamic soloist with a style that can be bluesy and linear one minute and fractured and full of spatter-paint squelch the next. It's a sound that brings to mind the work of legendary Italian free jazz trumpeter Enrico Rava, especially recalling his classic 1975 ECM date The Pilgrim and The Stars. On Gravity Without Airs, Knuffke and his trio grab your ears with a tactile beauty. ~ Matt Collar, Rovi

1		Gravity Without Airs
2		Stars Go Up
3		Between Today and May
4		The Sun Is Always Shining
5		Birds of Passage
6		Time Is Another River
7		Paint Pale Silver
8		The Water Will Win
9		June Streteched
10		Blinds
11		Piece of Sky
12		Shadows to Dance
13		Heal the Roses
14		Today for Today