2012 Umea Jazz Festival: Umea, Sweden, October 24-28, 2012

October 27: WorldService Project

Along with Isabel Sörling Farvel, England's WorldService Project was another high point of the 2011 edition of the 12 Points Festival. Not only does the festival create a platform for young acts to be heard by fans and the media, but in the last couple years it has implemented a new initiative called 12 Points Plus, where three groups are selected to go on a European tour, in order to further expose them to an even larger audience. As interested in promoting up-and-coming bands as it is legacy acts, Umeå is an active participant in 12 Points Plus, and this year's edition brought three groups to the festival: France's Actuum, Poland's Maciej Obara Quintet, and England's WorldService Project. If time and too many choices made it, sadly, impossible to catch Actuum and Obara, it's a good thing that WorldService Project wasn't missed, as this young group-ranging in age from 21 to 26-is clearly one deserving a close eye and ear.

Beyond its own music, WSP has been involved in an ongoing project/festival called Match and Fuse, bringing together groups from various countries. The 2012 edition brought groups like The Netherlands' Tin Men and the Telephone (one of the absolute high points of the recent Dutch Jazz & World Meeting 2012), Norway's Pixel and Synoke, and England's Led Bib and WSP. What became clear, upon speaking to WSP keyboardist Dave Morecroft, was that this is a very, very bright group of young players who is taking its career by the horns and using everything at its disposal to gain recognition.

The group's debut, 2010's Relentlessm (Brooke Records), demonstrated no shortage of promise from the quintet-at the time including, in addition to Morecroft, saxophonist Tim Ower, trombonist Raphael Clarkson, bassist Conor Chaplin and drummer Neil Blandford. Blandford has subsequently been replaced by Michael Clowes and, if anything, based on its Umeå performance, the group has made significant strides in a relatively short period of time: greater confidence, a much greater injection of humor and overall craziness into the proceedings, and a much stronger group identity. Songs like "De-Friender," which Morecroft introduced with its relevance to the Facebook age, was loaded with knotty stops and starts. An unrelenting pulse moved from thundering rock beats to up-tempo swing in a heartbeat, before dropping down into a free section that began with Morecroft, Clarkson and Ower in trio, but soon paradoxically built up and dissolved further when Chaplin and Clowes joined the party.

And, as jagged and sharp-cornered as so much of Morecroft's music was, there was, indeed, a party atmosphere from a band that was clearly having fun as, in the same tune, it broke down into a polka beat that evolved into a disco beat... and then stopped entirely, only for the whole band to rejoin with even greater power. "Fire in a Pet Shop"—like "De-Friender," appearing on the group's 2012 self-produced EP, Live from London, things got downright silly when Morecroft and Clowes began making animal noises, ranging from monkeys to cats. But silly is good, especially when you've a group this talented, this together and this promising. Chaplin looks like he's barely begun shaving (though he is, in fact, 21 years old), and the rest of the band looks like it's only a couple years older. But WorldService Project is a band that, as outrageous as some of its music can be, takes its business very seriously, with Morecroft and Clarkson attending two daytime panels-one on trends and tendencies in jazz, and the other on jazz media-and participating in them with the kind of interest that is rarely seen in such educational programming at festivals.

There's no doubt that WorldService Project is a group with promise, and one committed to self-promotion at a time when it's absolutely essential, especially for young, up-and—coming bands. But with performances like its incendiary Umeå set, and a new record on the horizon, if there's any band that's doing everything right, and deserves all the acclaim it can handle, it's WorldService Project. Stay tuned: there's clearly plenty more to come.

October 28: My Kind of Jazz II and Umeå Wraps Up

There are plenty of jazz festivals in the world, but few with someone like Lennart Strömback at its helm; a presenter with big ears and an even bigger heart, his clear and profound appreciation for everyone who helped make Umeå Jazz Festival a reality was felt from the moment of being picked up at the airport upon arrival. As much as possible, Strömback puts a personal touch on the festival, including providing some great lunch and dinner spreads for artists, media and other invited guests. When you're eating in the same place that all the artists are, it's an opportunity to network and, more than that, just have some fun before, in-between, and after the shows. Transparency that makes everyone accessible is something seen more in European festivals than in North America, but Strömback goes a step further, and really makes it feel like one big working party.

On the Sunday following the festival's last night of international performances, Strömback showed his appreciation by putting on a dinner for any of the remaining guests, as well as for all the volunteers who worked so hard, and with so little sleep, to make the 2012 edition a success. His speech to the crowd made his love and appreciation clear, but it didn't end there. An evening directed by pianist Mathias Landæus-whose 2009 recording with bassist Palle Danielsson and drummer Jon Fålt (Bobo Stenson Trio, Lekverk), Opening (Mare Recordings), is an impressive date of originals and a couple of standards-was more party than performance, though there were some very good performances. A number of outstanding musicians formed the house band-most of them local (as well as a guest performance by saxophonist Jonas Knutsson)-supporting a series of singers which ranged from a stunningly beautiful four-piece female vocal group to a duo that delivered some Swedish hip hop with plenty of spirit. By the end of the evening, the entire audience was up dancing, bringing Umeå to a close on a very personal note for everyone involved.

It was this kind of personal touch that-along with outstanding performances from artists known and unknown, established and up-and-coming, and young and old-gave Umeå its distinct personality; hopefully this first visit to a small town, nestled in Northern Sweden, won't be the last.

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