The Phoenix Trio ‘Tomorrow Is Today’ with Mark Turner, Joe Martin, & Marcus Gilmore

This article originally appeared on Jazz Police.

By Don Berryman

Marcus Gilmore, Joe Martin and Mark Turner © JIMMY KATZ

The Phoenix Trio is a new all‐star ensemble featuring three of the most creative and accomplished jazz musicians today; tenor saxophonist Mark Turner, bassist Joe Martin, and drummer Marcus Gilmore (who is the grandson of the great Roy Haynes). This trio performing all original music was recorded by Jimmy Katz & James Kogan live at the Ornithology Jazz Club in Brooklyn, New York, on March 23rd & 24, 2025. Tomorrow Is Today is the latest entry in the non-profit Giant Steps Arts new series Modern Masters and New Horizons. Curated by trumpeter Jason Palmer and Giant Step Arts, the series features artists who have helped shape the modern jazz landscape along with rising voices doing the same for the next generation.

Mark Turner has become one of my favorites on tenor. His approach is fresh and unique. When he attended Berklee College of Music in the late ’80s he discovered, along with the music of Coltrane and Joe Henderson, the work of Warne Marsh who was a disciple of the blind pianist and music theorist Lennie Tristano. I find this fascinating because my favorite alto saxophonist playing today is Jaleel Shaw who cites Lee Konitz as an influence. Konitz, who frequently collaborated with Marsh, also studied under Tristano. Turner’s wife, Helena Hansen, spoke of Mark Turner’s fascination with Marsh in an article in the Observer saying “What intrigued Mark was that he felt he had discovered a whole alternative language, These Italian and Jewish New Yorkers weren’t really part of the whole bebop scene. They ended up developing their own approach.” I think that ingesting and integrating these different branches of the jazz tree helped Turner develop his own sound.

This is the first project Mark Turner, Joe Martin, and Marcus Gilmore embarked on together as a trio and as its name, Phoenix Trio, implies it is about something new rising, being reborn. Turner, who suggested the name to his partners says, “Three in one is a common relationship throughout human culture and the physical world, It comes up in religion, mysticism, the human life cycle, music, art, science.12 bar blues, 12 keys, primary colors, rhythm/ melody/ harmony, Buddha/ Dharma/ Samgha, Father/Son/Holy ghost, Vishnu/Brahma/Shiva.Three is the Magic number to quote School House Rock. The Phoenix: rebirth, immortality, transformation. In short, the ultimate creative entity.”

While this is a new group, the members are well acquainted with each other having worked together on many different projects. The three of them recorded together as part of a quartet on Turner’s 2014 ECM release Lathe of Heaven (Inspired by Ursula K. Le Guin’s 1971 science fiction novel of the same name) which featured trumpeter Avishai Cohen. Joe Martin and Marcus Gilmore worked together recording and touring with the Chris Potter quartet. Joe Martin also appears on Mark Turner Quartet’s Patermaster released by ECM earlier this year. Because they have worked together over the years there is a level of communication between them that is apparent in the music on Tomorrow Is Today, which flows like a musical conversation. Rehearsal was minimal and discussion limited to grounding the players in what Turner describes as “form and pacing” with Martin adding, “beyond that, we just played our music and trusted the musical connection we have built over many years.”

The trio format allows for a lot of space and we get that on Tomorrow Is Today, Many of the tunes begin with Martin’s bass playing a repeating motif that serves as the pulse over Gilmor’s free-flowing subtle rhythmic accents. As Turner’s tenor joins in with expository melodic runs Martin’s bass plays contrapuntally improvising its complementary melodies. The drums often sound like gentle rain falling as Gilmore taps and then seems to gently pluck the sound from the drums rather than striking them. The last track opens with a 2 minute drum solo that is simply marvelous. He sounds like a percussion ensemble rather than an individual playing. The sound quality of the recording helps us hear this stunning chamber jazz.

Track Listing