Jazz Articles about Frank Carlberg

Frank Carlberg Trio: Reflections 1952

by Mark Corroto
December 22, 2022

How does one approach a Thelonious Monk tribute recording? Does the pianist sound like Monk? Truthfully, it is rare for a musician to replicate the high priest of bebop's distinctive and eccentric sound. Walter Davis Jr. could, but most other attempts are easily exposed as forgeries. The finest tributes are the ones that originate with the musician's language, like the South American sounds of Danilo Perez' Panamonk (Impulse!, 1996), Steve Lacy's soprano saxophone interpretations or guitarist Miles Okazaki's covers. Add ...

Frank Carlberg: Uncivilized Ruminations

by Eyal Hareuveni
June 27, 2011

Pianist/composer Frank Carlberg continues to perfect his distinctive blend of poetry and left-of-center jazz. Carlberg does it together with a stellar cast of close collaborators; most important of them is vocalist Christine Correra, with whom he has been collaborating for two decades. Both have performed poetry by Wallace Stevens on Variations on a Summer Day (Fresh Sound New Talent, 2000); Jack Kerouac, Robert Creeley, and others on In the Land of Art State of the Union (Fresh Sound New Talent, ...

Tivoli Trio: Tivoli Trio

by Mark Corroto
May 2, 2010

Pianist Frank Carlberg's trio is named after the Tivoli amusement park he remembers from his youth in Helsinki, not the famous Tivoli Gardens amusement park in Copenhagen, Denmark, the second oldest amusement park in the world and a huge tourist attraction.

Carlberg's Tivoli is more of the roving carnivals or circus that might be associated with less family-friendly characters, tattooed carneys (before tattoos were cool) and alcoholic acrobats. But, then the show must go on, cotton candy pulled and ring ...

Frank Carlberg: The American Dream

by Eyal Hareuveni
April 1, 2009

The poetry of Robert Creeley (1926-2005) has been arranged a few times in jazz settings and acknowledges the music's strong influence on his work. The late saxophonist Steve Lacy arranged the introspective and laconic verses of Creeley into an almost operatic setting in Futurities (Hat Hut, 1985) and later on The Beat Suite (Universal, 2003). In a more modest and down to earth vein, electric bassist Steve Swallow, who was also fascinated by the crystalline poetry of Creeley, first arranged ...

Frank Carlberg: In the Land of Art

by Elliott Simon
December 1, 2003

The beat poets and writers of the '50s idolized the bop players of their day. Jazz served as a template for their compositional methods, performing styles and as soundtrack to their writings. This adulation may not have gone both ways, though, as a quote attributed to Miles Davis indicates: “The Beat Generation ain't nothin' but just more synthetic white shit!" It's been a half century since beat and bop were the hip countercultures, and pianist Frank Carlberg has used that ...

Frank Carlberg: Variations On A Summer Day

by Mark Corroto
November 1, 2000

Adapting the poetry of Wallace Stevens to music is an almost natural task for Frank Carlberg. The ex-lawyer turned insurance executive (Stevens not Carlberg) wrote from pure imagination. His early associations had been with the New York intelligentsia, including William Carlos Williams and Marcel Duchamp. Carlberg, a Finnish born pianist and composer has been a frequent collaborator with Indian vocalist Christine Correa. Their work includes the duo Ugly Beauty (1994) and The Crazy Woman (1996).

This Stevens project, significant for ...

Frank Carlberg featuring Christine Correa: Variations On A Summer Day

by Glenn Astarita
November 1, 2000

Hailing from Helsinki, Finland – composer/pianist Frank Carlberg provides the musical setting for Variations On A Summer Day which is a collection of poems by Wallace Stevens. Vocalist Christine Correa is co-featured on this production along with a prominent assemblage of modern jazz all-stars consisting of saxophonists Chris Speed, Andrew D’ Angelo, drummer Kenny Wolleson and others.

Carlberg’s compositions are often richly thematic by design as the composer melds ambient textures with cyclic patterns, while the horns create understated tension ...