String Trio Of New York

Natural Balance is the fifth album by the String Trio Of New York and the last with its founding violinist, Billy Bang. The group formed in New York in 1977 with Bang, guitarist James Emery and bassist John Lindberg, a jazz trio without drums or horns, and made its debut record, First String, in 1979. Area Code 212 followed in 1981, then Common Goal and Rebirth Of A Feeling in 1983. Bang left in 1986 and was replaced by Charles Burnham, so this Black Saint session, recorded in Milan on April 1 and 2, 1986, closes the first period of a group that Emery and Lindberg kept going with a succession of violinists.

The album was recorded at Barigozzi Studio by Giancarlo Barigozzi and produced by Giovanni Bonandrini, with liner notes by Francis Davis. Bang plays violin, Lindberg bass, and Emery guitar, with soprano guitar also listed in the CAM Jazz credits. Each member brought material. Bang and Emery wrote the opener, One For Frankfurt T.V., Lindberg contributed Seven Vice and Ground Work, and Emery wrote Texas Koto Blues and Shadows In The Light, the longest piece at over eight and a half minutes. Bang's Going Through (Art Theme For A.R. Penck) closes the record. All six pieces fall between five and nine minutes, compositions written within the group for its own three instruments.

This is the Black Saint CD 120098-2, listed on Discogs as a repress of the album first released in 1987 as BSR 0098.