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Daniel Herskedal
Daniel Herskedal: A Single Sunbeam
by Geno Thackara
What Del Close did for the art of improv comedy or Jacques Torres for the art of chocolate, Daniel Herskedal does for the tuba. An occasional star such as Bob Stewart has taken the instrument somewhere fresh outside the time-honored contexts of orchestra or marching band, but it is another thing to make the entire tradition feel new--good luck trying to name anyone else who could adapt the tuba to chill-ambient, Arabian travelogue and Norwegian yoik chanting with equal skill. ...
read moreDjango Bates: Tenacity
by Pat Youngspiel
Few jazz artists go to such great lengths to make their audience feel at the same time bewildered by humor-infused technical exhaustion and smitten by charm and sheer musical beauty as Django Bates does. The English pianist and composer has gained a reputation over the years, for bringing the quirkiest and widest range of ideas and styles to a, more or less, aesthetically-serious art form. Some might even claim he's the Frank Zappa of jazz. Then again, who's to say ...
read moreDjango Bates: Tenacity
by John Kelman
It's been a long time since that late May, 2013 week in Luleå, Sweden, where pianist Django Bates and his Belovèd Trio first collaborated with the renowned Norrbotten Big Band. Fully documented in the All About Jazz article Django Bates: From Zero to Sixty in Five Days, Bates, bassist Petter Eldh and drummer Peter Bruun, along with other non-Norrbotteners, including guitarist Markus Pesonen, tubaist Daniel Herskedal and trombonist/vocalist Ashley Slater, made the lengthy trek to this small coastal town, located ...
read moreDaniel Herskedal: Call For Winter
by Geno Thackara
Everyone has to go home sometime. Daniel Herskedal and his tuba have covered a good many miles both figurative and literal over the course of seven albums, particularly with the travel-themed triptych of Slow Eastbound Train (2015), The Roc (2017) and Voyage (2019) that preceded this recording. Where each of those had its own small cast and geographical settings, Call for Winter is the sound of the artist returning home and settling down in solitude. That expression isn't ...
read moreDaniel Herskedal: Call For Winter
by Ian Patterson
Tubaist Daniel Herskedal is on a roll. In 2019, shortly after the release of Voyage (Edition Records), he picked up a Norwegian Grammy as part of Marja Mortensson's trio for the outstanding Mojhtestasse (Vuelie, 2018). This was followed by the soundtrack on the closing credits of Joe Talbot's award-winning film Last Blackman in San Francisco (2019). Towards year's end there was another stunning collaboration with Mortensson, the duo album Lååje--Dawn (Vuelie), a loving homage to Norway's nature. Call For Winter, ...
read moreMarja Mortensson & Daniel Herskedal: Lååje – Dawn
by Ian Patterson
For her Norwegian Grammy-winning album Mojhtestasse (Vuelie, 2018), South Saami singer Marja Mortensson recruited tuba player Daniel Herskedal and drummer/percussionist Jakop Janssønn on a sublime offering of nature-inspired folk songs. On LååjeDawn , Mortensson and Herskedal reunite for their first duo outing, once again finding their muse in Norway's nature. But the seasonal invocations in Mortensson's poetic lyrics are tempered by ecological warnings. Dawn represents renewal and hope, but as Mortensson and climatologists the world over know, Earth is at ...
read moreDaniel Herskedal: Voyage
by Ian Patterson
Though Norwegian tubist Daniel Herskedal first garnered widespread recognition with Neck of the Woods (Edition Records, 2012)a sublime collection of folkloric-cum-hymnal meditations with Marius Neset--his unique talent had already won over the jurists at Getxo Jazz in 2004. Two solo albums on the NorCD label made minor ripples before Edition Records came along. Herskedal's next two Edition releases, Slow Eastbound Train (2015) and The Roc (2017) helped establish his credentials as a composer of hauntingly beautiful music of original design. ...
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