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Björn Hängsel
Nils Berg & Norrbotten Big Band: Paid To Cry
by Maciej Stasiowski
When faced with the trauma of loss, we stifle. Tears flow when the defense shields are eventually down or the dam is allowed to overflow with emotion. Crying out loud--pardon the pun--turns into a performance that comes with its own measures of mastery in feigning the lament for the screen or--as in the case of Nils Berg and his 2025 collaboration with Norrbotten Big Band --the speakers. Rest assured, lachrymose arrangements are genuine, melodies verge on the cathartic. With the ...
Continue ReadingDjango 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 ...
Continue ReadingDjango 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 ...
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Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson
Eyes On The Prize (Paradise)
From: Paid To CryBy Björn Hängsel
