Large Unit with Akira Sakata

A single nearly hour-long performance, Hohai Bushi is a somewhat contrived attempt to fuse Japanese and Norwegian musical currents through the medium of improvised Jazz. Composed by drummer Paal Nilssen-Love and based on a traditional song from Aomori, the piece is interpreted by the drummer’s 14-strong large unit, with Akira Sakata, the veteran Japanese Free Jazz player featured on alto saxophone, Bb-clarinet and voice. Far removed from the ecstatic, almost limitless Free Jazz intensity Sakata exhibits in smaller groups, the contrasting motifs of the extended work include pivots to multiphonics, melody and Japanese murmurs. Sakata’s reading of an anti-war poem in his gravelly voice may have added gravitas to the live concert, but is more of a distraction than a dissertation here.

More comprehensive are the individual contributions that stand out from the narrative that billows from intersectional bumps and slides, emphasized squeezes, squealing split tones and squirming cacophony. Expansive thumps from triple percussionists Celio de Carvalho, Andreas Wildhagen and Nilssen-Love produce taiko-drum-like reverberations at points and a concentrated groove at others. Hanne de Backer’s baritone saxophone overblowing sabotages early attempts to solidify a march tempo; while Mats Äleklint’s gutbucket trombone definitely smears cut though massed vamps from the five reed players. Later on Signe Emmeluth breaths a trilling flute interlude which stands out from Sakata’s spewed vocals and a darkened background riffed by the entire band.

Additional brightness is interjected into the performance by Kalle Moberg’s accordion squeezes and trumpeter Niklas Barnö’s triplets; while any pivots and returns towards a thick hulking groove are strengthened by Per Åke Holmlander’s tuba huffing that encompasses shofar-like yelps and intensified snorts.

Slower and more stilled interludes are also heard, yet the composition’s definition truly arrives in the penultimate section when portamento brass and riffing reed motifs kick in along with drum rumbles and pops This leads to interactive and dissonant streams and shakes, finally resolved with a vague Asian sounding sequence.  Final contrasts between the accordion’s buzzing squeezes and a group drone projection signals the climax,

As audacious as it is aggressive Hohai Bushi stands out as an east-west fusion that just misses its orchestral goals. As for Sakata, his brief anthemic encore on clarinet with rhythmic suspension and emphasized squeak provide a better definition of his instrumental skill than his contribution buried among other orchestral textures.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Hohai Bushi 2. Akatombo

Personnel: Niklas Barnö (trumpet); Mats Äleklint (trombone); Per Åke Holmlander (tuba); Akira Sakata (alto saxophone, Bb-clarinet, voice);  Signe Emmeluth (alto saxophone, flute); Marthe Lea (tenor saxophone, flute); Hanne de Backer (baritone saxophone); Andreas Røysum (bass clarinet, flute); Kalle Moberg (accordion); Ketil Gutvik (guitar); Jon Rune Strøm (bass); Christian Meaas Svendsen (bass, shakuhachi); Celio de Carvalho (percussion, gong) Andreas Wildhagen and Paal Nilssen-Love (drums, percussion, gong)