Simon Nabatov 3+2 - Verbs

2023

Verbs in and by themselves are substantival and have significance, for he who uses such expressions arrests the hearer’s mind… (Aristotle, On Interpretation) Language becomes a spellbinding repository for intoxicating revelation and cryptic imagery on Verbs, the latest full-length from the remarkable Russian-American pianist Simon Nabatov, a stunning release augmenting his already notable Clean Feed catalogue including this year’s Tender Mercies with German reedist Frank Gratkowski. Spearheading his augmented Cologne-based 3+2 quintet, featuring new recruits Leonhard Huhn and Phillip Zoubek, alongside familiar trio members Stefan Schönegg and Dominik Mahnig, Nabatov interprets a series of urging semantics as programmatic springboards for glorious spontaneous invention, a lexical calls-to-arms instigating disparate, virtuosic responses; titular signifiers doubling-up as mood-indicators, signalling variances in tempo, pitch, tone and timbre.