Extended – Without Notice (Vinyl LP)

Immediately after dropping their 2019 critically acclaimed sophomore release, Harbinger (Origin Records), New Orleans-based trio Extended set to work assembling the material for Without Notice. Embedded in the previous album were flashes of the long-form, highly improvisational yet through-composed and thoroughly collective approach to songwriting that has become their signature, and this new album is their calling card.

Without Notice is full of twists and turns and surprises – it is their most musically adventurous album to date, the material largely worked out on stage over several years of active local gigging and touring. In that process, they’ve expanded their palette of sound worlds, adding 90s hip-hop grooves (“Central Standard”) and unexpected post-production overdubs (“Impairment Process”), to the Debussy textures (“The Ineffable Allure of Shadows”) and Keith Jarrett-tinged jazz-rock phrasing (“The Gardens”) that listeners have come to expect. Ironically, it is now, on this third release that they have finally found an occasion to swing (“Sphere”).

The title cut is the newest tune in the book, written during the early days of the Covid-19 shutdown. By comparison, it is a simple tune, yet it is an example of the way their music can turn on a dime, offering something different at any moment. As an album title, it is a reminder of how the year 2020 unfolded, and luckily, Extended was in a position to take advantage of the unexpected free time of the shutdown and dive headfirst into preparing this recording. This is their pandemic gift to us.

Each member writes equally for the band, drawing on their disparate life experiences – Rossignoli grew up in Honduras, Webb in South Louisiana, and Booth outside Washington, DC. They began playing together in the boil pot of the New Orleans music scene in 2016, and despite their diversity of influences, they have done what all bands strive to do. Extended has developed a singular ensemble sound. This is contemporary piano trio music from a band that knows who it is, where it came from, and where it is headed.