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Trygve Seim, Frode Haltli: Our Time
by Neri Pollastri
Fanno coppia da molti anni questi due eccellenti musicisti norvegesi, tanto da essere passati nei nostri festival e aver già pubblicato nel 2008, sempre per ECM, un loro primo album, Yeraz, che adesso replicano presentando un lavoro ancor più maturo e che mescola libere improvvisazioni, composizioni originali, brani etnici e persino una citazione di Igor Stravinsky, il tutto all'interno di un clima intimo e sospeso. Registrata nella Himmelfahrtskirche di Monaco, la musica si caratterizza soprattutto per il fitto ...
Continue ReadingLaura Jurd: The Big Friendly Album
by Chris May
The Big Friendly Album is what it is called and that is exactly what it is. London-based trumpeter/cornetist and composer Laura Jurd's fourth album under her own name is a big hearted, gorgeously lyrical, feel-good romp, which does not preclude cerebral engagement but which wears its complexities so lightly that one barely notices them. Jurd last came to the attention of All About Jazz during The Great Pause, with the release of the perfect little masterpiece To ...
Continue ReadingSigurd Hole: Roraima
by David Bruggink
Norwegian upright bassist Sigurd Hole has stood out in the recent past as both a contributor (with his elegant performance on Tord Gustavsen's 2018 ECM album, The Other Side) and bandleader (through his 2018 Elvesang album Encounters). His solo explorations are equally noteworthy, as on the wide-ranging double album Lys / Mørke (Elvesang, 2020). Recorded on the remote arctic islands of Fleinvær, he thoughtfully probed the relationship between the high-pitched harmonics and drones of his instrument and the spectral winds ...
Continue ReadingVossa Jazz Festival 2019: Jazz Folk Meet by the Lake
by Josef Woodard
Vossa Jazz Festival Voss, Norway April 12-14, 2019 There are bigger fish on the storied and seemingly ever-healthy Norwegian jazz festival circuit than Vossa Jazz, but it has its own brand of soulfulness. The kickoff event on a Nordic festival list including later blowouts in nearby Bergen, Trondheim, Molde, Kongsburg, and Oslo, Vossa Jazz is a deceptive little powerhouse occasion all its own, nestled in the lakeside town and winter ski haven, pop. 15,000, and whose ...
Continue ReadingTrygve Seim / Frode Haltli: Yeraz
by Budd Kopman
Yeraz is an intimate, deep and beautiful exploration of both instrumental sound and artistic reactions to many different influences. It must be listened to carefully and patiently, not only because it is performed by a duo--saxophonist Trygve Seim and accordionist Frode Haltli--but because their musical choices are, for the most part, very subtle and carefully developed. It is anyone's guess why the music of mystic G. I. Gurdjieff in particular, and traditional/folk music of the Eastern Mediterranean and ...
Continue ReadingFrode Haltli: Passing Images
by Budd Kopman
Frode Haltli does not play accordion, but rather makes music with an instrument that we call an accordion. Using carefully chosen musicians, Haltli has created, with Passing Images, a highly intense, very concentrated work that is both disconcerting and beautiful--something to be slowly savored and pondered. Its fifty-one minutes are full of surprises and shocks. There is little overt musical movement and yet, despite much silence, the listener is pulled ever forward. The overall volume is low ...
Continue ReadingFrode Haltli: Passing Images
by John Kelman
Abandoning the contemporary classicism of Looking on Darkness (ECM, 2002), Norwegian accordionist Frode Haltli's Passing Images looks, instead, to traditional Norwegian music for its inspiration. But Haltli, like accordionists Pascal Contet and Guy Klucevsek, stretches the boundaries of his instrument's capabilities--rarely takes things literally. His unfettered musical aesthetic, and the players that he's chosen to work with--trumpeter Arve Henrkisen, violist Garth Knox and singer Maja Solveig Kjelstrup Ratkje--make this collection of traditional tunes, original music and free improvisation a lesson ...
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