Free playing, Danish composer Carl Nielsen’s “Oft Am I Glad”, tunes by Bill Evans and George Russell, a Norwegian hymn, contemporary composition by Ola Gjeilo, a Wolf Biermann protest song, Ariel Ramirez.’s folkloric “La Peregrinacion”, … Wide-ranging repertoire has become a hallmark of Bobo Stenson albums. But it’s not just the eclecticism that is striking: Stenson, Jormin and Fält take these far-flung sources and make an organic, breathing music out of them … Stenson, of course, has long been one of the greats of Scandinavian jazz, and an ECM artist since the first years of the label. But there is a balance of energies in this particular trio – clear-edged lyrical piano playing, rootedness and keen choice of notes from the bass, and detailed, textural drumming – that is especially satisfying. Recorded in Lugano in November and December 2011.
Indicum
Bobo Stenson Trio
Freies Spiel, der Liedklassiker "Tit er jeg glad" des dänischen Komponisten Carl Nielsen, Stücke von Bill Evans und George Russell, ein norwegischer Hymnus, zeitgenössische Komposition von Ola Gjeilo, ein Protestsong von Wolf Biermann, Ariel Ramirez.'folkloristisches "La Peregrinacion", ... die weit ausgreifende Wahl des Repertoires ist längst ein Markenzeichen von Bobo Stensons Alben geworden. Aber es ist nicht nur der Eklektizismus der hier verblüfft: Stenson, Jormin und Fält gewinnen aus diesen weit auseinander liegenden Quellen organische, vital atmende Musik. Natürlich ist Stenson schon lange einer der Großen des Skandinavischen Jazz (und ECM-Künstler seit den frühen Jahren des Labels). Doch in diesem speziellen Trio gibt es eine Balance der Energien - klar konturiertes, lyrisches Pianospiel, kraftvoll geerdete klug phrasierte Basslinien, und detailreiches fantasievolles Drumming - die besonders beeindruckt. Aufgenommen im November und Dezember 2011 in Lugano.
- 1Your Story
02:52 - 2Indikon
06:03 - 3Indicum
03:10 - 4Ermutigung
05:09 - 5Indigo
04:20 - 6December
04:55 - 7La Peregrinacion
08:26 - 8Event VI
03:11 - 9Ave Maria
07:48 - 10Tit er jeg glad
06:42 - 11Sol
09:11 - 12Ubi Caritas
06:41
Four years after “Cantando”, a new album from the Bobo Stenson Trio – recorded in Lugano last December – explores a broad arc of material. Here we find: free playing (the trio has its own, fresh approach to collective improvising), tunes by Bill Evans (“Your Story”, offered here as a tribute to Paul Motian, for whom this tune was a favourite) and by George Russell (“Event VI” from “Living Time”, another piece associated with Evans), Danish composer Carl Nielsen’s “Oft Am I Glad”, a Norwegian hymn (in an arrangement by Anders Jormin and folk singer Sinikka Langeland), contemporary composition by Norway’s Ola Gjeilo, a Wolf Biermann protest song, Argentine composer Ariel Ramírez’s folkloric “La Peregrinación”, and more. Wide-ranging repertoire has become a hallmark of Bobo Stenson recordings. But it’s not just the eclecticism that is striking: Bobo Stenson, Anders Jormin and Jon Fält take their far-flung sources and make of them an organic music that sings with its own voice.
As the New York Times has noted “Mr. Stenson makes fairly sublime piano trio records without over-arranging, overplaying or over-bandleading. In his mid-60s now, he’s the repository of half a century of the development of free jazz, in particular the European post-1960s kind, with its folk and classical leanings. Yet he wears it all lightly. In his recent records you don’t hear strategies or contentions but a natural working flow.”
Long one of the most influential of Scandinavian jazz musicians, Bobo Stenson was amongst the first ECM artists. His recordings with Jan Garbarek in the 1970s were recently reissued as the boxed set “Dansere”. He has played on important ECM discs with Don Cherry, Charles Lloyd, and Tomasz Stanko and made his first recording as piano trio leader for the label in 1971. The Stenson trio has gone through a number of permutations since then, with former personnel including bassists Arild Andersen and Palle Danielsson and drummers Jon Christensen and Paul Motian, distinguished players all. In the current trio with Jormin and Fält, whose line-up has been consistent since 2004, there is a balance of energies – clear-edged lyrical piano playing, rootedness and keen choice of notes from the bass, and detailed, textural drumming – that is especially satisfying. “Few contemporary jazz groups sustain an atmosphere as evocatively as Swedish pianist Stenson’s trio, or conjure so many moods across a variety of material” wrote John Fordham, reviewing “Cantando” in The Guardian. “Nothing, from a steaming postbop line to a stroked cymbal-edge or a sitar-like bass phrase, suggests a hint of an accidental sound – yet somehow the music never dims the glow of spontaneity.”
The musicians share an eagerness to play and the dynamics of the free/rhythmic understanding between Anders Jormin and Jon Fält have latterly been explored also in Jormin’s own groups, as on the “Ad Lucem” album, released earlier this year.
As the New York Times has noted “Mr. Stenson makes fairly sublime piano trio records without over-arranging, overplaying or over-bandleading. In his mid-60s now, he’s the repository of half a century of the development of free jazz, in particular the European post-1960s kind, with its folk and classical leanings. Yet he wears it all lightly. In his recent records you don’t hear strategies or contentions but a natural working flow.”
Long one of the most influential of Scandinavian jazz musicians, Bobo Stenson was amongst the first ECM artists. His recordings with Jan Garbarek in the 1970s were recently reissued as the boxed set “Dansere”. He has played on important ECM discs with Don Cherry, Charles Lloyd, and Tomasz Stanko and made his first recording as piano trio leader for the label in 1971. The Stenson trio has gone through a number of permutations since then, with former personnel including bassists Arild Andersen and Palle Danielsson and drummers Jon Christensen and Paul Motian, distinguished players all. In the current trio with Jormin and Fält, whose line-up has been consistent since 2004, there is a balance of energies – clear-edged lyrical piano playing, rootedness and keen choice of notes from the bass, and detailed, textural drumming – that is especially satisfying. “Few contemporary jazz groups sustain an atmosphere as evocatively as Swedish pianist Stenson’s trio, or conjure so many moods across a variety of material” wrote John Fordham, reviewing “Cantando” in The Guardian. “Nothing, from a steaming postbop line to a stroked cymbal-edge or a sitar-like bass phrase, suggests a hint of an accidental sound – yet somehow the music never dims the glow of spontaneity.”
The musicians share an eagerness to play and the dynamics of the free/rhythmic understanding between Anders Jormin and Jon Fält have latterly been explored also in Jormin’s own groups, as on the “Ad Lucem” album, released earlier this year.
