All About Jazz Review
JASON STEIN’S LOCKSMITH ISIDORE Three Less Than Between
Clean Feed Records 2009

Jason Stein's Locksmith Isidore trio album follows A Calculus of Loss (Clean Feed Records, 2008). While Stein has retained drummer, Mike Pride, he has swapped a cellist for Chicago bassist Jason Roebke. Stein, a New Yorker, has chosen to base his playing out of the fertile Chicago jazz scene, playing and recording with Ken Vandermark, oboeist Kyle Bruckmann, saxophonist Keefe Jackson and others.

The Chicago sound suits Stein's approach to music. The tracks here are mostly improvised, but melodies and satisfying patterns tend to emerge as each track unfolds. The opening track, “Protection And Provocation,” could be an equivocal tribute to the great Eric Dolphy and his guttural vocalizations played over walking bass and snare drum. But if Dolphy is the starting point, Stein's new conception is the direction of this recording. The trio frees itself on melody on “Stevenesque,” and Stein flexes his aggressive horn on “Laced Up With Air,” where he goes toe-to-toe with Pride and Roebke. The drummer, probably known best for his take-a-few-prisoners punk/jazz drumming plays with a shrewd and discerning style here. When called to, he can match Stein's speed, as on “Izn't Your Paper Clip,” but mostly he sticks to his role underscoring the music.

Stein's clarinet meets the rubbing bass of Roebke on “Saved By A Straw,” breathing textured notes and occasional bird calls to match the tweet and rubbings of the bassist. Roebke, a member of James Falzone's Klang, Mike Reed's People, Places & Things, and bands led by Jeb Bishop and Jason Adasiewicz, is an in-demand player because he can both lay down a pulse to keep the momentum of the music moving forward and operate in the open atmosphere of sometimes minimal free improvisation.

-Mark Corroto, All About Jazz December 2009