Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Jan Gunnar Hoff: Fly North!

6

Jan Gunnar Hoff: Fly North!

By

View read count
Jan Gunnar Hoff: Fly North!
Norwegian pianist Jan Gunnar Hoff has had the honor of being the first artist on Losen Records to release an album recorded at producer and label owner Odd Gjelsnes' studio Berxeta, in sunny Spain. It was fitting that the name of that album was called Berxeta (Losen Records, 2012), and its sound was influenced by the surroundings: a warm and eclectic brand of fusion with influence from bouncing Latin rhythms.

However, Gunnar Hoff has never shunned his Nordic sensibility and Fly North! finds him returning to his Scandinavian heritage with a stellar cast of musicians. With names like Norwegian trumpeter Arve Henriksen, Swedish bassist Anders Jormin and Danish percussion wizard Marilyn Mazur, it's nothing less than a Nordic super group and fortunately they are able to deliver on Hoff's promise. Paradoxically, they do so by setting themselves aside and being servants to the music.

All compositions are written by Hoff and a good portion of them, including the title track, can be found on his solo release Living (2L, 2013). The music is epic in its proportions and the natural beauty of Henriksen's wordless voice and airy trumpet playing is a wonder to behold on the title track.

Hoff is a master stylist whose soft keyboard shadings, abstract improvisations and deep lyricism imbue the compositions with many different moods, while Jormin and Mazur both add to the atmosphere like painters rather than an ordinary rhythm section.

Together these four master musicians travel deep into a land of beauty. Fly North! is an enchanting musical journey in first class all the way through.

Track Listing

Fly North; Living; Arise; Places; Sacrifice; Böcklin; Spheres; Valse de Décembre; Questions; Gathering.

Personnel

Jan Gunnar Hoff: piano, keyboards; Arve Henriksen: trumpet, vocal; Anders Jormin: bass; Marilyn Mazur: drums, percussion.

Album information

Title: Fly North! | Year Released: 2014 | Record Label: Losen Records

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

Near

More

Tramonto
John Taylor
Ki
Natsuki Tamura / Satoko Fujii
Duality Pt: 02
Dom Franks' Strayhorn
The Sound of Raspberry
Tatsuya Yoshida / Martín Escalante

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.