A deep dive into Martin Pyne’s very personal approach to the vibraphone.
“Over many years I’ve made a conscious effort to develop and expand my own vocabulary on the instrument, aiming to maximise the range of available sounds, attacks, colours and textures, enhancing the expressive qualities available to me.” (Martin Pyne)
“Touch and articulation mark him as a stand-out player … in those qualities of vibraphone playing, Martin is in complete control.”
(Corey Mwamba – from the album sleeve note)
Martin Pyne’s new release, the double album TRIOS, focuses on his unique approach to the vibraphone. The album places his playing in the context of two contrasting trio lineups.
In VAMPIRE COAST TRIO Martin is joined by one of his favourite drummers, Johnny Hunter, along with the extraordinary double bass player Michael Bardon. Together they make music with a truly transparent texture, full of both space and sonic detail together with richly lyrical melody and counterpoint. Martin says, “Michael and Johnny’s response to the material I had prepared for the session was simultaneously deeply sympathetic to my ideas and approach, and at the same time fearless in pushing the music in new directions.”
The second disc of this double album features the CHALK HORSES TRIO. Here Martin is joined by long time collaborator David Beebee on electric piano, continuing their exploration of the intersection of the vibes and Rhodes tonality that they began on their duo album Ripples, an intoxicating, rich sound world. In this trio lineup they are joined by the superb drummer Angus Bishop, who plays with a deep sense of groove and swing while retaining a supple flexibility – there are no rhythmic straitjackets in his playing. His ear for colour and dynamics are also a crucial part of of the sound of this group. The music here is full of atmosphere and mystery.
The album also features two solo pieces: “Cooking For One” – played on balafon and temple bowls is a tribute to Martin’s collaborators in the group Dangerous Kitchen, Stan Sulzmann and Simon Allen, where these very instruments featured extensively. “Song For Walt Dickerson” is Martin’s homage to the great US vibraphone innovator whose recordings remain a constant reference point for him.
Together this is a beautifully performed collection of well considered tunes and improvisations played by five players who share a sophisticated sense of space, structure and groove.
“Music where you will hear the vibraphone, and through it hear a spectacular musician.” (Corey Mwamba).
A double CD package from percussion pioneer Martin Pyne, who doesn’t figure on drum kit at any point. Instead he’s the real deal on vibraphone throughout, plus balafon and small percussion. The mallet work is exemplary and warrants detailed analysis alongside that of Americans like Gary Burton, Bobby Hutcherson and Walt Dickerson. It might as well be said before I go on much further, this is peerless stuff.
Disc A has Mr Pyne matched with Michael Bardon’s precise double bass and Johnny Hunter on kit drums. Disc B’s two compatriots are David Beebee, electric piano and Angus Bishop on drums. There’s a lot of music here. All of it touching gold one way or another.
Disc A is a very spatial session with some of the quality of Karl Berger’s recordings with Dave Holland and Ed Blackwell. Loping, open, an on-the-spot dance through tonal holds and vibrato shading. On any other day I’d spend longer on Disc A, referred to as Vampire Coast Trio, it cleverly articulates three to three. The trouble is A is paired with B, and B is another brand new bag entirely.
This is where the temperature gets turned up, like sweating through your ears. Disc B is Chalk Horses Trio. A brilliantly clear audio black stub on a white background written here. Maybe, a reverse entry, what do I know? Only what I hear.
I’ve only ever caught David Beebee live in concert on one occasion. He was playing with Martin Pyne in the Small Blue trio. On that occasion Beebee took advantage of the venue’s rich woody grand piano and although he had an electric keyboard with him, the Small Blue’s ‘take’ on jazz trio music didn’t go into the kind of territory offered up by Disc B. Whatever, Chalk Horses are navigating a music that has more funky slap and snap about it. For all that, there’s a deep vein.
Mr Beebee is phrasing what ‘feels’ like a regular Rhodes electric in the manner of Herbie Hancock. There’s that dropped plop about its notation, the twitch under the magnificent vibes, a twin-like talk that resonates anticipation. Now, add the third component, Angus Bishop’s funky thud and ripple and this three piece are most definitely ‘on it’. Throughout the whole album I kept expecting Miles Davis’ horn to enter on the drop-shots. This session would have been a gift for Charlotte Keefe’s brass. No matter, these three guys aren’t spread thin, the balancing act here has everything constantly moving.
I must admit I really don’t ‘get’ the titles on Trios. The moniker for the overall album is nicely singular, says what it is. The track descriptions however are like leftovers from a folky idyll session. The Wife’s Lament or And Then A Poppy Blooms… personally I can’t catch the correlation with the shear heave of what I’m hearing. I don’t need to, musically Chalk Horses speaks volumes. This music keeps coming back. Encore. – Steve Day, October 2026
*Trios* (DISCUS 218, 2xCD) focuses on Martin Pyne and his vibraphone. It features the Vampire Coast Trio, with Michael Bardon on double bass and Johnny Hunter on drums and percussion—and a vibraphone sound that, to Corey Mwamba’s ears, is not metallic or crystalline, but rather eloquent and articulate. Pyne plays solo on “Cooking For One” (which also incorporates balafon and temple bowls, and is dedicated to his partners in Dangerous Kitchen) and on “Song For Walt Dickerson.” “Blackwell Tart” offers a groovy nod to drummer Ed Blackwell. On “Asrai,” Hunter’s glockenspiel underscores the lightness of a water nymph, while on “Onibi,” bowing and *pianissimo* passages evoke ghostly will-o’-the-wisps. The balafon returns to clatter away on “Spinning Yarns.” Yet, throughout these delicate vibrations and timbres, a sense of mindfulness dominates—viewing the world as a glass house where Bardon treads with velvet paws and hums with his bow, and where Hunter sweeps the floor to avoid crushing any beetles. Vampires trip about in glass slippers; water fairies and restless spirits appear fluid and fleetingly aflame. The music pays homage to this dappled, darting elusiveness. The Chalk Horses Trio features Pyne alongside David Beebee—his partner on *Ripples* and *Espial*—on electric piano, and Angus Bishop, the drummer from Full Circle and Beebee’s partner on *Beyond the Clouds*. The tracks evoke images and stories such as “The Green Man Dances in Mud Lane,” “The Ghosts of Wharram Percy” (referencing a case of corpse mutilation driven by the fear of the undead), “Fishing in Muddy Water,” and “The Wife’s Lament.” There is the floral “Yellow Rattle,” and—on “And Then a Poppy Blooms”—a piece conceived with a haiku in mind. Then there is the folk-inspired ‘The Nixie’ and the ‘Farandole’—which, despite its title, is danced to a metallic beat. The vibraphone sounds are produced by playing the instrument prepared or dampened, scraping it with mallet handles, and rattling it with a caxixi. They create gentle waves, accompanied by the Fender Rhodes as it steams swampily and tootles busily. Taiko Saito, Martin Pyne—the magic can certainly go on like this. – Rigobert Dittmann, BAD ALCHEMY
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