Atomic

Theater Tilters Vol. 1
Jazzland Recordings 273339-7

The Godforgottens

Never Forgotten, Always Remembered

Clean Feed CF 164 CD

Swedish trumpeter Magnus Broo and Norwegian drummer Paal Nilssen-Love are the soldering points of both these CDs. However, not only is each disc significant in its own way, but the thought process involved in creation is as different as the other musicians involved.

Energetic Young Lions with class, the five members of Atomic have put together a CD of hard-hitting originals whose ball-in-socket performance speaks to the group’s constant touring over the past decade. Two other Atomics are Norwegian – pianist Håvard Wiik and bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten – and one, multi-reedist Fredrik Ljungkvist – is Swedish. Leaders in other circumstances – as are Nilssen-Love and Broo – collectively the players have worked in different groups in Europe and North America, with fellow Scandinavians, Americans, such as multi-reedist Ken Vandermark and pianist Marilyn Crispell plus Germans, including saxophonist Peter Brötzmann and trumpeter Axel Dörner.

An altogether different proposition, and recorded three years earlier, Never Forgotten, Always Remembered is more claustrophobic and atmospheric than Theater Tilters Vol. 1. Unlike his literally hard-hitting performance on the other CD, Nilssen-Love is relatively restrained here, depending more on ancillary percussion than his regular kit. Similarly Broo’s identity as a modernist Clifford Brown on the other CD is traded on Never Forgotten for the long lines and rubato timing associated with Nordic sounds and ECM records.

Eschewing the soporiferous patterns of many ECM dates and replacing them with individual quirks however is the job of the two plus the other Godforgottens. Swedish bass player Johan Berthling, a contemporary of the Norwegians, has a reach which extends into playing electro microtonalism with the likes of Australian guitarist Oren Ambarchi. The last deity-abandoned contributor is veteran keyboardist Sten Sandell, whose Gush trio set the standard for Free Jazz in Sweden. Further differentiating this session from the other, is that Sandell plays not only his usual piano, but Hammond B3 organ as well and also exposes his guttural vocalizing.

Over the course of three extended instant compositions, the quartet amasses a string of distinct and mercurial tones that are sometimes droning and sometimes shrill. Hand slapping his strings or sawing them to induce tonal tension, Berthling provides the date’s percussive centre. Nilssen-Love frequently brings forward his shaken chains and rattling bell tree as well as outlining cymbal pops and bass drum smacks, while Broo’s carefully constructed chromatic lines often give way to shrill brays and juicy tongue stops. Sandell’s on-again-off-again organ drone is in place, but so too are his key-clipping and high-frequency piano runs, usually sounded fortissimo.

Maintaining a similar pitch throughout the session builds to the nearly-20 minute “Remembered Forgotten”. It’s taken staccatissimo courtesy of the drummer’s rim shots, paradiddles and pumps plus physically powerful strums and pops from the bassist. After Broo’s linear grace notes relax into moderato fluttering, Sandell takes centre stage with techniques that flow separately from either hand: a low-pitched continuum from one and high-pitched silent movie-theatre-like riffs from the other. Berthling’s ostinato ushers in piece’s final variant, until percussion rat-tat-tats from Nilssen-Love’s and Sandell’s low-frequency organ flutters giving way to distant plunger work from Broo.

Role reversal comes for the drummer and trumpeter on the other CD, where nearly every track is characterized by vivacity and speed. This is particularly noticeable on the final tune, Ljungvist’s self-explanatory “Bop About”. Reminiscent of a Jazz Messengers showpiece, this line from the Kristinehamn-born multi-reedist follows every Hard Bop hallmark. Ljungvist’s slurs, honks and flutter tonguing are spelled by high-pitched fireworks from Broo, splayed piano comping and back-beat drumming. Then, following the turnaround, the tenor saxophonist exhibits his intense vibrato before a shout chorus brings back the head, which is repeated once again following a pause.

Less formulistic, other compositions showcase the quintet’s range. Wiik’s “Murmansk” for instance is built around horn parallelism, double counterpoint whose lines never meet. Ljungvist also shows off his clarinet skill here. Staccato blowing modulates upwards to near-altissimo shrills and as effortlessly moves downwards to pressurized squeaks. Håker Flaten’s intermittent plucks and Wiik’s staccato pitter-pattering are also featured. But the highlight is Nilssen-Love’s bravura solo, beginning with paddling and paradiddles, as he works away from the drum head centres to the rims.

One of the three Chicago-associated tunes – “Green Mill Tilter” and “Bop About” are named for Windy City clubs – “Andersonville”, is Ljungvist’s homage to the late tenor saxophonist Fred Anderson. To avoid comparisons, the reed man initially uses his clarinet to match contralto trills with Broo’s heraldic flourishes and concludes by snorting away on baritone saxophone. With the initially discordant contrapuntal horn line backed by clipped, high-frequency chording from Wiik, Håken Flaten’s ostinato and a quickening parade-ground beat from Nilssen-Love, it’s the bassist’s tough pulsing that redirects the tune to a Boppy swinger. Atop drags and flams from the drummer, the exposition is restated among Broo’s rubato blasts, then drops away for a growling baritone sax solo and some woody bass slapping.

Redefining existing styles so that they fit their personalities as if they were well-tailored suits, is evidentially the preoccupation of this group of talented Scandinavians. More to the point they do so in their own way, avoiding the slavish emulations of many of their American confreres.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Never: 1. Always Forgotten 2. Never Remembered 3. Remembered Forgotten

Personnel: Never: Magnus Broo (trumpet); Sten Sandell (Hammond B-3 organ, piano and vocal); Johan Berthling (bass) and Paal Nilssen-Love (drums)

Track Listing: Theater: 1. Green Mill Tilter 2. Andersonville 3. Fissures 4. Murmansk 5. Bop About

Personnel: Theater: Magnus Broo (trumpet); Fredrik Ljungkvist (tenor and baritone saxophones and clarinet); Håvard Wiik (piano); Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (bass) and Paal Nilssen-Love (drums)

July 18, 2010

Atomic School Days

Distil
Okka Disk OD 12073

Ab Baars Trio & Ken Vandermark

Goofy June Bug

Wig 15

Without trying to make him sound celestial and selfless, Ken Vandermark is one of those rare musicians who is as comfortable in an ensemble as fronting one. Despite recording so often as leader, the Chicago-based multi-reedist is just as apt to show up on disc as an addition to an existing band or as part of a generically titled ensemble. That was happens on these two CDs.

Over the years, collaborations with Europeans have also proven to be particularly fruitful for the saxophonist and clarinetist’s musical growth. This is confirmed on Goofy June Bug and Distill with each offering a divergent – and equally notable – take on improvised and composed music.

Recorded live in Chicago, Distil showcases an octet comprised of the Norwegian Atomic band: trumpeter Magnus Broo, reedist Fredrik Ljungkvist, pianist Håvard Wiik bassist Ingebrigt Håker-Flaten and drummer Paal Nilssen-Love; plus those members of School Days – made up of Vandermark, Håker-Flaten, Nilssen-Love and Chicago-trombonist Jeb Bishop – who aren’t in Atomic, as well as Norwegian vibist Kjell Nordeson. Nine long tracks on this two-CD set, composed by different band members, offers everyone a proper showcase.

Goofy June Bug on the other hand adds Vandermark to the established Dutch trio of fellow clarinetist Ab Baars, which also includes drummer Martin Van Duynhoven and bassist Wilbert De Joode. Except for one brief group improv, the compositions are mostly by Baars with Vandermark contributing three.

Perhaps it’s the freshness factor, but two of these tunes are among the CD’s stand outs. “Waltz Four Monk”, for example, salutes Thelonious without implicitly aping the pianist’s style. With De Joode walking and Van Duynhoven leaning hard and heavy on his kit, the polyphony from Baars’ tenor saxophone and Vandermark’s clarinet bonds, then divides as the later flutters into squeak territory and Baars double tongues and masticates the kind of robust split tones that could have frightened Charlie Rouse.

“Memory Moves Forward” is a different matter. During its slightly more than nine minutes, Baars’ lucent and wispy shakuhachi timbres intersect with Vandermark’s equally high-pitched clarinet lines supported by col legno bass runs and mallet-driven clangs from the drummer. Later on the clarinet dips into chalumeau territory, while Baars’ Orientalized wheezing create a wholly different mood, especially when Van Duynhoven accompaniment sounds as if the drummer is manipulating a taiko drum.

Not that Baars’ writing isn’t distinctive as well, especially when all four musicians all involved in those themes. “Then He Whirled About”, “Honest John” – saluting long-time Sun Ra tenor saxophone soloist John Gilmore – and the title track postulate POMO tough tenor roles. Yet with the drummer also gliding from Boppy cymbal-clanging to free form rat-tat-tats, the harmonic interchange between the saxophones doesn’t resemble that found in standard two-tenor combos like Johnny Griffin and Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis or Al Cohn and Zoot Sims.

Contrapuntal riffs, squeezed split tones and stressed cries owe more to the younger Archie Shepp and Pharoah Sanders at their fieriest, with both Baars and Vandermark scaling the heights of glossolalia, layering rubato honking, low-pitched slithers and, on the title tune, some resemblance to bagpipes into their blowing. Even at their wildest the two manage to rein in enough to allow heads to be recapped on most tunes. Elsewhere Baars’ clarinet work is feathery and impressionistic enough to be completely distinct from his sax solos.

Distinctiveness is the order of the day on Distil as well, with the octet members gobbling up whole swathes of jazz history as they play and spewing them out in reconfigured and characteristic forms.

Broo’s “Ghosts and Spirits”, with its offhand reference to Albert Ayler’s tune, manages to feature most of the band members, but in a form that owes as much to Count Basie-like effortless swing as Ayler. Here, as elsewhere on the set, Bishop’s gutbucket smears are prominent as is Wilk’s key-clipping and Nordeson’s contrapuntal asides. Encompassing brassy tongue sprays from the composer and high-frequency organic runs, overall the track belongs to the pianist. Moving from recital-like arpeggios to slashing and splashing comping he circles the others with allegro, kinetic patterns, spraying disconnect timbres that easily meld with the horn sections’ call-and-response vamps.

Meanwhile on a tune like Bishop’s “Deadline”, Ljungkvist provides a demonstration of how he may be the only Texas tenor who was born in Norway, honking his way into multiphonics, matched by Vandermark’s R&B baritone sax whoops. Nordeson’s vibe underpinning could come from Bobby Hutcherson’s work behind Gracan Moncur III, with Bishop in the later role. Over the stop-time theme, the trombonist twists grace notes, blows tremolo clusters and works out a series of slide flourishes extended with hand-muted intensity. Building up to piston-like syncopation, Nilssen-Love’s concluding solo seems linked more to Jo Jones or Gene Krupa than the expected John Stevens or Milford Graves echoes.

Other anomalies such as Håker-Flaten’s pumping bass line and harmonized reed polyphony share particular spaces; so does the cross-pollination of elongated altissimo clarinet shrills, virile trombone snorts and sprays, plus gamelan-like tuned gong resonations from the drummer. Together they spotlight the ensemble’s versatility. At times as well, pedal-point baritone saxophone riffs and choked valve brass lines combine in double counterpoint only to be subdued by roistering drum beats and key-clipping piano for further thematic definition.

Impressively, the distillation of Atomic School Days doesn’t only register on the agitato and fortissimo scale however. The bassist’s “Irrational Ceremony” is a quieter and more impressionistic piece that unrolls unhurriedly and smoothly. Well-recorded like the rest of the set, the scene-setting results from clave-like concussion from Nilssen-Love, descriptive low-frequency chording from Wilk, spraying vibraharp pulses and harmonically vibrated horns interaction.

Another Bishop paradigm, his solo here sluices upwards to double-tonguing from moderato flutter tonguing and throat growling, as beneath him the rhythm section gradually time-shifts to a faster tempo. As Wilk fans his keys, the piece then opens up enough so that Broo can express chromatic coloration with a series of concentrated triplets and tongue curving inflections. Eventually the final variation manages to mix murky trumpet smears and discordant backbeat rhythms, Free Jazz and Swing Jazz simultaneously.

Vandermark is the link between the sessions, but it’s the contributions of all the players which make the discs memorable. Ironically, Vandermark’s activities as a talent spotter and catalyst may ultimately prove more fruitful than his forceful soloing and writing.

-- Ken Waxman

Track list: Distil: CD1: 1. Deadline 2. Irrational Ceremony 3. Visitors 4. Dark Easter CD2: 1. Andersonville 2. Fort Funston 3. Closing Stages 4. Ghosts and Spirits 5. Buñuel at the Coctail Party

Personnel: Distil: Magnus Broo (trumpet); Jeb Bishop (trombone); Fredrik Ljungkvist (tenor saxophone and Bb clarinet); Ken Vandermark (baritone saxophone Bb and bass clarinets); Håvard Wiik (piano); Kjell Nordeson (vibraphone); Ingebrigt Håker-Flaten (bass) and Paal Nilssen-Love (drums)

Track list: Goofy: 1. Straws 2. Honest John 3. Losing Ground 4. Waltz Four Monk 5. Prince of Venosa 6. Then He Whirled About 7. Memory Moves Forward 8. Munmyo 9. Return 10. Goofy June Bug 11. Lunch Poem

Personnel: Goofy: Ab Baars (tenor saxophone, shakuhachi and clarinet); Ken Vandermark (tenor saxophone and clarinet); Wilbert De Joode (bass) and Martin Van Duynhoven (drums)

November 9, 2008

ATOMIC/SCHOOL DAYS

ATOMIC/SCHOOL DAYS Nuclear Assembly Hall
Okkadisk OD 12049

More of an internationalist than most American musicians, Chicago-based reedist Ken Vandermark has made a point of forming concordances with European musicians. Not only is he one of the key constituents of saxist Peter Brötzmann’s Chicago Tentet, but he often works in half-European/half American bands like the AALY trio, the Territory Band and the group featured here.

As its name makes clear, the octet combines the School Days band -- Vandermark, trombonist Jeb Bishop, vibist Kjell Nordeson, bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten and drummer Paal Nilssen-Love -- with trumpeter Magnus Broo, reedist Fredrik Ljungkvist and pianist Håvard Wiik who with Håker Flaten and Nilssen-Love make up the Scandinavian quintet Atomic. The results spread over two CD sides are dazzlingly spectacular.

Probably because all the players have a musical history with one another, the octet seems as well integrated as any fulltime group. No imperialist furthermore, the Chicago reedman spreads the compositional chores around, with every member contributing a tune -- and Ljungkvist supplying two. A study in contrasts, his “W Meets A” is a straightahead swinger built on high frequency piano arpeggios plus ruffs and bounces from the drummer, while “Kerosene” is more complex.

Beginning with a light toned mixture of slurred sax and brass lines, Ljungkvist moves the tune forward in a moody Gerry Mulligan-like fashion on baritone while Wilk comps quietly and Nilssen-Love restricts himself to brushes. Taking his place upfront, Nordeson offers up some sparkling mallet turnarounds, then Bishop contributes double-tongued chromatic slide action. More rough Kid Ory than smooth Lawrence Brown, the ‘bone man develops a blossoming stop-time section, that mixes with the clean mellow clarinet lines of Vandermark. Meanwhile, polyphonically, the baritone, vibes and rhythm section mesh to repeat the theme.

Memorable on their own, the vibist and bassist skip from tractable, smooth lines on Håker Flaten’s “Green Wood” -- which also features some Bill Evans-like piano chording and a thin screechy tone from a clarinetist -- to forceful thrusting motion elsewhere such as on Bishop’s “Conjugations”.

A martial-like piece filled with chipping brass tones and unison coloratura timbres from both reedists on clarinets, “Conjugations” soon opens up with a walking bass line and quick clip-clops from the drums. As hocketing horns riff in the background, Broo promulgates slurred, muted grace notes to introduce a Håker Flaten-Nordeson duet. Resonating metal bars and strummed strings continue to play ring-around-a-rosy until plunger tones from the composer veers the tempo down to a blues-like march.

Vandermark’s almost 19½-minute “Bulletin”, which ends the set, also seems to be a compendium of all the eight can do. Following a calm, foreshortened piano intro, every horn explodes into an orgy of flutter tonguing and freak effects. Nordeson is simultaneously smoothly liquid and percussively resounding as first plunger trombone, than the other horns pass the theme back-and-forth. Bishop’s chromatic runs soon turn to broken chords, until Vandermark, on baritone, takes the lead. Pecking, snorting and tongue slapping, he propels the piece upwards until it reaches a polyrhythmic crescendo of recoiling horn textures that displace the tonal centre and only stop when the piece does as well.

If NUCLEAR ASSEMBLY HALL has a weakness, it’s that both Ljungkvist and Vandermark are listed in the personnel on “reeds”. Considering both play most members of the saxophone and clarinet family, you can’t unmistakably ascribe any singular solo to one or the other.

Wouldn’t it be ironic if despite all the recognition he has received as a composer and player -- including a MacArthur grant -- that years from now people decide that Vandermark’s main achievements was integrating American and European improvisation and improvisers?

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: CD1: 1. W Meets A 2. Transparent Taylor 3. Green Wood 4. Ink Worm 5. Kerosene CD2: 1. Conjugations 2. Dogdays 3. Light Compulsion 4. Bulletin

Personnel: Magnus Broo (trumpet); Jeb Bishop (trombone); Fredrik Ljungkvist (soprano. tenor and baritone saxophones, clarinet); Ken Vandermark (tenor and baritone saxophones, clarinet); Håvard Wiik (piano); Kjell Nordeson (vibraphone); Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (bass); Paal Nilssen-Love (drums and percussion)

August 23, 2004

FREE FALL

Furnace
Wobbly Rail 013

JIMMY GIUFFRE/PAUL BLEY/STEVE SWALLOW
Fly Away Little Bird
Sunnyside/Owl SSC 3504

Named for the LP that presented the fullest realization of clarinetist Jimmy Giuffre’s chamber-avant garde in 1962, the band Free Fall shows how the structured freedom of the trio can be adapted to the 21st Century.

Yet FURNACE succeeds on its own terms because the musicians involved -- American reedist Ken Vandermark and Norwegians, pianist Håvard Wiik and bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten -- haven’t gone the neo-con route of recreation. Instead nine new compositions have been recorded, with the performance of the three as influenced by the subsequent 40 years plus of improv experimentation as the original Giuffre trio’s sound.

Fascinatingly enough the final (1992) reunion CD of the original Giuffre FREE FALL trio -- pianist Paul Bley and now electric bassist Steve Swallow join Giuffre -- doesn’t much sound like what the three recorded in 1962 either. Although it has interesting sections of its own, FLY AWAY LITTLE BIRD doesn’t match up to FURNACE, nor does it reach the standards set on others discs by the trio 30 years previously. Giuffre appears to be less than low-key -- he may be showing the first signs of Parkinson’s disease that now prevents him from playing -- Swallow’s electric bass obliterates the nuances he was capable of with his acoustic. And Bley seems to feel he has to try to knit together the unraveling strands with overt, almost overbearing pianisms.

On FURNACE, Vandermark, whose eagerness to record means that he sometimes overextends himself, has linked up with two schooled Europeans to express his vision. Both veterans of Vandermark’s School Days project and large Territory band, Håker Flaten has worked with everyone from Finnish electric jazz guitarist Raoul Björkenheim to the all-star freebop Electrics group with German trumpeter Axel Dörner and Swedish drummer Raymond Strid -- both of whom have also played with Vandermark. Håker Flaten and Wiik are also two-fifths of Atomic, a popular Norwegian jazz combo that modernizes Cool Jazz concepts.

Before FREE FALL Giuffre practically invented Cool Jazz with his “Four Brothers” chart for the Woody Herman Herd. But Vandermark’s focus here is on 1960s icons, with tunes dedicated to Bley, reedist Eric Dolphy and most impressively, poet Frank O’Hara and pianist Bill Evans.

The O’Hara tribute and title tune is more abrasively experimental than anything attempted by the original Giuffre three. Built around Håker Flaten’s heavy bass lines, you can actually hear the strings’ finish being scraped as he pulls and pushes, double and triple stopping this side of slap bass territory. Wiik responds with a sped up tremolo section and a split-second glissando, as Vandermark honks, growls and slurs his reed into freak altissimo tones. By the end, all three are speedily sluicing on all four cylinders.

Surprisingly enough for a piece dedicated to Evans, “Half Past Soon” is a steady swinger based on passing piano chords plus false fingering and flattement from Vandermark’s clarinet. Then again Evans did have a long association with clarinetist Tony Scott, who was an unabashed bebopper. Perhaps Wiik’s harmonic polyphony mixed with Impressionistic arpeggios and Vandermark’s double timed reprising of the theme is a sort of homage to that earlier partnership.

Vandermark also shows off his skill as a bass clarinetist on “Hopscotch” and other tunes. On “Hopscotch”, as the pianist introduces subtle contrasting dynamics, the reedist puts a bit of torque onto his warmer, low-pitched register, smearing his lines until he joins with Wiik for a unison exit.

More puzzling, while it does indeed vanish “Into The Air” as the title has it, the slow moving, dissonant harmonies of that tune seem a lot closer to the work of the honored Giuffre trio than anything played by dedicatee Eric Dolphy. Especially since when the piece moves to mid-range, its cascading piano chords and resonating strummed bass line cement that impression.

As a writer, Wiik’s “Emergency” is a fast, snaky line made up of double timed, flashing keyboard syncopation, powerful walking bass and liquid, almost Swing Era slurs from the clarinet. Two-thirds of the way through it speeds up even more, introducing dancing piano octaves and clarinet squeaks.

Moving from energy to possible exhaustion and from FURNACE to the progenitors on FREE FALL, the Giuffre reunion CD compounds a desultory delivery with a time of more than 76½ minutes. Removing some band takes on over-familiar standards and some shorter solo features could have tightened up a session that already seems a little distracted.

Even when the three men reunite for another run through of Gordon Jenkins’ “Goodbye” which they recorded both in studio and live in 1962, the effect is this side of melancholy. With Giuffre sounding merely wistful and Swallow’s lines too upfront, Bley

produces a series of single note tremolos and low frequency, cushioning harmonies. The same thing happens on the title tune, as Giuffre’s moderate Bel Canto tone and Bley’s impressionistic fingering in quiet quadrants greatly contrast with Swallow’s now resonating, guitar-like tone.

On his own, the pianist, who is honored with a song dedication on FURNACE, uses his space to confirm his solo prowess. On “Qualude” he explores the darker possibilities of the duplex scale. With theme snatches suggesting “Somewhere” and “Jesus Christ Superstar”, his steady left hand trickles out some blues-like notes as the right produces tremolo cadenzas. By the end boogie-woogie inflected double timing has given the smooth balladic melody some unexpected spikiness. All this succinctly sums up Bley’s iconoclasm.

Boogie-woogie stylings even seeps into “Possibilities”, the next tune. Bley splashes octave runs, Swallow’s spews a constant rhythmic thrust and Giuffre mewls the melody from the soprano saxophone. Whether Swallow’s buzzing accompaniment helps or hinders matters, the reedist makes it clear with his double tonguing that he’s no John Coltrane or Steve Lacy. He’s also older than either one.

“Tumbleweed”, the reedman’s solo feature, finds him alternately sing-shouting and playing. While it may be Giuffre’s most distinctively avant-garde showcase, the vocalized mixture of Spanish and gibberish could probably have been dispensed with -- it adds very little to the date. He shows his control of the licorice stick through, first squealing out notes in tip top pitch then blowing them out slowly in chalumeau register until the theme is reconstructed out of strained tongue stops and trilled split tones.

At almost 11½ minute, the album’s showcase, “Bats in the Belfry”, a sonorous rondo seems to be an instant composition. Giuffre breaths out the theme in familiar fashion followed by single note fills from Bley. Light-fingered piano arpeggios spur the reedman to elongate his smears, then Swallow’s repeated undertow allows the other two to project breezy lines on top. With Giuffre in mellow, mid-range, Bley starts dampening the key action for more percussive sounds that join with strums and slaps from Swallow. Building up a combination of constricted string action and the occasional keyboard accent, Bley leads Giuffre to end the track -- and the session -- with a flutter-tongued trill.

Giuffre’s trio should be honored for its pioneering avant-chamber work that is wanly reflected on certain tunes of this CD. But, if it wasn’t for the Giuffre trio, the fine disc that FURNACE is wouldn’t have come into existence.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Furnace: 1. Inside Out (for Paul Bley) 2. The Spell of Introspection 3. Hopscotch (for Merce Cunningham) 4. Furnace (for Frank O’Hara) 5. Into The Air (for Eric Dolphy) 6. Half Past Soon (for Bill Evans) 7. Momento 8. Halfway 9. Emergency

Personnel: Furnace: Ken Vandermark (Bb and bass clarinets); Håvard Wiik (piano); Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (bass)

Track Listing: Fly: 1. Fly Away Little Bird 2. Fits 3. I Can’t Get Started 4. Qualude 5. Possibilities 6. Tumbleweed 7. All The Things You Are 8. Starts 9. Goodbye 10. Just Dropped By 11. Lover Man 12. Sweet and Lovely 13. Bats in the Belfry

Personnel: Fly: Jimmy Giuffre (clarinet and soprano saxophone, vocal); Paul Bley (piano); Steve Swallow (electric bass)

April 26, 2004

KORNSTAD TRIO

Space Available
Jazzland 014 724-2

ATOMIC
Feet Music
Jazzland 016 558-2

Working musicians participate in many situations and our view of their talents is often shaped by the particular role in which we hear them.

Take Norwegian drummer Paal Nilssen-Love, for instance. In North America, if he’s known at all, it’s for his work with countryman altoist Frode Gjerstad or as part of various bands led by Chicago’s Ken Vandermark, two roles that place him very firmly in the avant-garde.

Back at home however, he drums for other bands, including the trio and quintet featured on these two discs, which would only be classified as outside by the most rabid neo-con. Of course perception can affect hearing as well. Since musical reactionary thought gained currency with the Young Lions phenomenon, a band like Atomic, which named its disc after an Ornette Coleman composition may be thought of being beyond the traditional pale.

Instead, a close listen to the session will convince anyone with ears that this Feet Music marches not to a harmolodic beat, but to a straightforward 4/4 provided by

Nilssen-Love and bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, who also worked with Vandermark, exploratory Swedish saxophonist Mats Gustafsson, and with the drummer, made up a fusion rhythm section for Finnish-American guitarist Raoul Björkenheim. Although the bull fiddle player has an exploratory bowed solo on “El Coto”, you certainly wouldn’t describe the rhythm on a piece like “Do It” as anything but freebop or maybe free (hard) bop.

Swedish trumpeter Magnus Broo certainly approaches the fluidity of mid-period Jazz Messenger -- and neo-con idol -- Lee Morgan -- on tunes such as “Longing For Martin” and “Prayer”. Other times, the brass blends sound as if they come straight out of 1950s West Coast jazz. But then again maybe that’s to be expected from someone like Broo who attended North Texas State University from 1984 to 1990, where the music program has long pledged eternal fealty to Stan Kenton. However, Broo’s sweet-and-sour soloing, contrasted with the deeper tones of Fredrik Ljungkvist’s tenor on his own “Den Flytiga Magneten”, sound more like Coleman associate Don Cherry than Chet Baker’s work with Gerry Mulligan.

The Swedish alto and tenor man is a special case as well. A switch hitter from outside to inside jazz and back again, he initially helped organize Atomic as a reaction against so-called mountain jazz, associated with the ECM school which characterized most Scandinavian improvising in the 1970s and 1980s. He too has freer associations with Gustafsson, French guitarist Marc Ducret and even went to Chicago to play with Ken Vandermark’s Territory Band in 2001.

Norwegian pianist Håvard Wiik is probably the most traditional man here with his light-toned comping throughout and exhibiting romantic single notes on his own “Psalm”. On “El Coto” in fact, he could be confused for ur-ECM stylist Keith Jarrett, although the horns delve into atonality. Wiik has backed up such leading Norwegian artists as bassist Arild Andersen and vocalist Karin Krog, who also record for ECM.

All in all, Feet Music is a satisfying contemporary outing, impressively in the same class as many releases by young North American jazzers.

SPACE AVAILABLE is another matter. One of those trio blowouts common since the 1950s heyday of Sonny Rollins, tenor saxophonist Håkon Kornstad has good company with which to stretch the rules.

Bassist Mats Eilertsen leads his own Charles Mingus-inspired sextet featuring Kornstad and works the bottom as much as he can here. Nilssen-Love, the eldest of the three at 28 (!), manages to fit in membership in LO-KO, a duo with Kornstad along with his other commitments. At the same time, conservatory-trained Kornstad has also had experience with No Spaghetti Edition, the local experimental large band, and has played with other advanced folk like drummer Ingar Zach.

With this disc generally a low-key affair, Kornstad wisely sticks mostly to tenor throughout. Sometimes, as on “Space Available” and “Peasant Song”, he exhibits a smooth tone that seems to owe something to onetime Scandinavian resident Stan Getz, or maybe Archie Shepp, who did, after all, record “Girl From Ipanema”. Behind him both Eilertsen and Nilssen-Love modals of accomplished restraint. With the bassist’s steady pulse and press roll and cymbal accents from the drummer, the saxman lets himself loose on Eilertsen’s “Intornette” with a mild case of reed-biting, but a pointed mini-quote from Ornette Coleman’s “Focus on Sanity” shows that he and the others don’t regard this CD as an out-and-out free session.

At times Eilertsen’s strumming and Nilssen-Love’s percussion accents frame some extended guttural breaths from the saxophonist, but the wiggling soprano saxophone tone he exhibits on “Summer Samba” was probably one experiment that should have been curtailed.

Probably the most illustrative action here, is the band’s deconstruction of Stephen Sondheim’s “Send In The Clowns”, staple of a thousand lounge acts. With the drummer sounding as if he’s quietly tapping his snares and toms with his palms, the melody is first subtly advanced by the bassist then given a slow-motion, funereal air by Kornstad. Impressive enough in execution, the saxman’s unruffled tone and adherence to the melody shows that pure improvisation is reserved for another situation.

Like FEET MUSIC, this CD offers another glimpse into modern Scandinavian mainstream, establishing that the improvisers there are as healthy and technically proficient as their North American counterparts, if a bit more adventurous.

With the collective talent assembled on both discs, it seems that almost every one of them could be capable of following Håker Flaten and Nilssen-Love into freer music. Imagine what would result then.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Feet: 1. Nära Grensen 2. Longing for Martin 3. Do it 4. Den Flytiga Magneten 5. Psalm 6. El Coto 7. Prayer 8. Fifth Circle 9. Krilons Resa

Personnel: Feet: Magnus Broo (trumpet); Fredrik Ljungkvist (soprano and tenor saxophones); Håvard Wiik (piano) Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (bass); Paal Nilssen-Love (drums)

Track Listing: Space: 1. Arched Shape 2. Send In The Clowns 3. Intornette 4. Q 5. Spring Song 6. Summer Samba 7. Space Available 8. Peasant Song

Personnel: Space: Håkon Kornstad (soprano and tenor saxophones); Mats Eilertsen (bass); Paal Nilssen-Love (drums)

June 22, 2002