Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Mats/Morgan Band: Live

153

Mats/Morgan Band: Live

By

View read count
Track review of "En Schizofrens Dagbok"

Mats/Morgan Band: Live
In their teens, drummer Morgan Ågren and keyboardist Mats Öberg were invited to perform with Frank Zappa and, as the story goes, the Swedish duo formed this phenomenal ensemble that exercised a jaw-dropping mode of execution within the progressive-rock schema, amid some Zappa and jazz-centric influences. Revered for its otherworldly approach to the genre and superior technical faculties, Mats/Morgan Band is known for its exhilarating live performances and manifold approach to composition.

Agren is an in-demand session artist, and appears on the galvanized semi-structured jazz-rock power trio album Blixt (Cuneiform, 2001), featuring bassist Bill Laswell and guitarist Raoul Bjorkenheim. Yet with Mats/Morgan's sixth album, originally recorded at a Swedish club in 1999, the piece "En Schizofrens Dagbok," yields an all-embracing illustration of the ensemble's breadth.

Rooted in a multifaceted constitution, "En Schizofrens Dagbok," is entrenched with hyperactive funk grooves, ferocious exchanges, scorching guitars, tricky time signatures, and jovial melodic content. Serious-minded but sprinkled with quaint sensibilities, the musicians' divergent implementation tender split-second breakouts, polytonal treatments and fluent cartoonish escapades. The differentiator resides within the artists' penchant for merging a chops-heavy element with sustainable themes and passages that move along with the impetus of a fast-paced action thriller. Its progressive rock with a college education by an outfit that has few, if any, peers in the business.

Track Listing

1. Hollmervalsen - 11:53 (Ågren); 2. En Schizofren Dagbok - 6:27 (Ågren); 3. Ta Ned Trasan - 11:41 (Öberg); 4. Jigsaw Variations - 6:46 (Ågren); 5. Guardian Pitch - 4:42 (Öberg); 6. Paltsug - 0:31 (Öberg); 7. Etage A41 - 6:11 (Ågren); 8. Min Häst - 7:19 (Öberg); 9. Banned Again - 8:32 (Ågren); 10. Igloo - 3:29 (Öberg); 11. Kintörnen - 9:02 (Ågren).

Personnel

Mats/Morgan Band
band / ensemble / orchestra

Mats Öberg: keyboards; Morgan Ågren: drums; Jimmy Ågren: guitar; Tommy Thordsson: bass; Eric Carlsson: keyboards; Robert Elovsson: keyboards.

Album information

Title: Live | Year Released: 2011 | Record Label: Cuneiform 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.

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.