ECM Records GmbH: ECM 2474 / 475 2954 
http://www.ecmrecords.com/catalogue/1452512959/the-bell-ches-smith-craig-taborn-mat-maneri

* Ches Smith: drums, vibraphone, timpani
* Craig Taborn: piano
* Mat Maneri: viola
 
http://www.craigtaborn.com/ 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mat_Maneri

Recorded on June 2015 at Avatar Studios, New York.
Engineer: James A. Farber.
Assistant: Akihiro Nishimura.


Reviews
~~~~~~~

By John Fordham 
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jan/14/smith-taborn-maneri-the-bell-review-new-york-jazz

This trio set from three of New York’s most imaginative left-field musicians –
Tim Berne drummer/vibraphonist Ches Smith, pianist Craig Taborn and
tone-bending viola player Mat Maneri – displays such an unusual balance of
compositional tautness (Smith wrote all the pieces) and spontaneity that
assigning it to any jazz, improv or contemporary classical box is
impossible. The nine-minute title track is typical, in the explicitness of the
opening bell chime, Taborn’s show-and-hide chordal pulse, Maneri’s graceful
ascents and a heated finale sprayed with brusque percussion rumbles. Cryptic
viola melodies shadowed by rolling piano figures accelerate to frisky dances,
stern tom-tom grooves stalk alongside intimate piano-viola dialogues, the
fiddle equivalent of Jan Garbarek’s long sax outbreaths curl across dark
landscapes before storms break. Smith’s vibes and Maneri’s viola share romantic
exchanges that turn poundingly funky: Wacken Open Air has a sinister,
monster-music relentlessness, For Days a catchy hook that dissolves into
reverential slow-improv speculations. The UK isn’t yet on their impending
world-tour schedule, but hopefully it soon will be.

--

By Paul Acquaro 
http://www.freejazzblog.org/2016/01/ches-smith-trio-bell-ecm-2016.html

By Derek Taylor

By Karl Ackermann 
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/the-bell-ches-smith-ecm-records-review-by-karl-ackermann.php

By Mark Sullivan 
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/the-bell-ches-smith-ecm-records-review-by-mark-sullivan.php

By Grego Applegate Edwards

Jan Granlie (no) 
http://salt-peanuts.eu/record/ches-smith-craig-taborn-mat-maneri/

Peter Füssl (de) 
http://www.kulturzeitschrift.at/kritiken/cd-tipp/ches-smith-the-bell

Cyriel Pluimakers (nl) 
http://www.jazzenzo.nl/?e=3418

Di Leonardo Di Maio (it) 
http://www.ondarock.it/recensioni/2016_chessmith_thebell.htm

Por João Santos (pt)

Par Philippe Lesage (fr) 
http://www.djamlarevue.com/blog/2016/1/3/smith-taborn-maneri-the-bell

Por I. Ortega (es) 
http://www.distritojazz.es/2016/02/ches-smith-%E2%80%98the-bell%E2%80%99/

Por Jesús Gonzalo (es)