Live at the Pizza Express (2010), the trio’s first release, features guest trumpeter Ralph Alessi and became a significant ‘light in the sky’ through its unfettered and fiercely compelling chemistry captured in a superb audio recording, garnering glowing press reaction. With that album pulling their already recognized potential into sharper focus, Hart proceeded to tour extensively with thunderous drummer and fellow Loop Collective co-founder Dave Smith and world-renowned bassist, Michael Janisch, honing this complex, driven powerhouse of invention.
“Hart is being aligned with an emerging set of exciting, forward-looking contemporary vibraphonists such as New York’s Chris Dingman, Matt Moran, and Chicagoean Jason Adasiewicz. Hart’s new rhythm trio is certainly going to be one for the future. The American London-resident double bassist Michael Janisch and drummer Dave Smith combine with Hart in an assuredly airtight yet elasticized trio.”
“The Cloudmakers Trio brings together three of the most inventive players on the UK scene.”
“It’s one of the most exciting and persuasive jazz albums to have come out of the UK’s recording studios so far this year.”
Billowing across the firmament with evolving creativity, Cloudmakers Trio continues to be a major force in adventurous contemporary music, blending downtown New York and European jazz with world and rock influences. This project’s original vision – to match the textural density of a piano trio, but instead headed up by vibraphone – places exhilarating improvisation at the core, analogously emulating fleeting, ever-changing skyscapes formed by the cloud-like abstractions of power stations.
The founding synergy of the Cloudmakers Trio – led by vibraphonist Jim Hart with double bassist Michael Janisch and drummer Dave Smith – shaped distinctive, dynamic timbres from the outset; and their recent augmentation as Cloudmakers Five – with saxophonist Antonin-Tri Hoang and electric guitarist Hannes Riepler – has unlocked the concept of divergent collaboration to expand Hart’s artistic scope and compositional repertoire still further.
Cloudmakers Trio’s second album, Abstract Forces (2014), throws an even broader spotlight on the band’s progression, described in reviews as having “An aptitude for making a threesome of rhythm-section instruments sound forceful and ethereal by turns.” (The Guardian) and possessing a “Patient, attentive approach to building space and adventure… All utterly bewitching.” (London Jazz News). It was also listed as an album of the year by Downbeat and Jazzwise Magazines; and digital release AJMiLIVE #7 (2015), recorded live at AJMi Jazz Club, Avignon, France, mostly features vibrant interpretations of tracks from this studio recording.
“London-based Cloudmakers Trio shakes up everything in sight on its second release. Abstract Forces further highlights the group’s exceptional vibraphone bass-drums telepathy… draws from such diverse musical worlds—including free-jazz, funk, electronic experimentation, pure swing and unbridled improvisation… their music is not only impossible to resist, but gets better with repeated plays.”
Cloudmakers Five’s Traveling Pulse (2018) captures live performances of animated, cumulonimbus proportion from two nights at the Vortex Jazz Club, its mesh of sound woven through with colorful guitar textures, cirrus-like electronic effects, soaring sax and propulsive beats – “A sense of cognitive assonance where Hart’s imaginative charts merge seamlessly with virtuosic extemporisation from all five protagonists.” (All About Jazz).
Originating in the UK, Cloudmakers Trio tours internationally, commanding an enthusiastic following in the United States, Canada, Norway, Ireland, France, Spain, and Austria, as well as at home; and the next trio album is already forecast on the horizon.
“Jim Hart is the master of the vibraphone’s metal bars, and conjures from it the most colorful of sound waves. The album is sophisticated and dynamic and although extremely energetic and rhythmically tricky, there is never a lyrical moment missing on this CD in anyway. Both poetry and power are elegantly balanced.”
“Hart has a positive genius for rhythmic hide-and-seek. His improvised lines grab your attention and won’t let go, no matter how many tricky corners he gets into. There’s no mistaking the musicianship and phenomenal togetherness of all three.”