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Jon Rune Strøm
Archer: Sudden Dusk

by Mark Corroto
Saxophonist and label chief Dave Rempis invites listeners to come for the punk rock and stay for the meditation session. With his new quartet, Archer, the Chicagoan joins forces with Dutch guitarist Terrie Ex and the Norwegian rhythm duo of bassist Jon Rune Strøm and drummer Tollef Østvang. Sudden Dusk captures two live performances from the group's U.S. tour in the spring of 2024. Rempis first made waves in the late 1990s with The Vandermark 5 before leading ...
Continue ReadingSulida: Utos

by John Sharpe
Under the collective moniker Sulida, up-and-coming young Norwegian saxophonist Marthe Lea joins forces with more established countrymen, bassist Jon Rune Strøm and drummer Dag Erik Knedal Andersen, in an exhilarating mix of improv and tunefulness. It is not just the egalitarian name, but the repertoire also. With the exception of one cover and single cuts by Lea and Strøm, all the pieces are credited to the entire threesome (even the unaccompanied outings for bass and drums). Opening the ...
Continue ReadingFriends & Neighbors: Circles

by John Sharpe
Even some 60 years after its birth, the free jazz of the American New Thing remains a fertile source of inspiration in 2024. On its sixth album, Circles, Norwegian quintet Friends & Neighbors continues to find rich avenues to explore in its updated repurposing of the naked expressionism of the 1960's avant-garde. An unchanged line up comprises some of the most in-demand players on the European scene in saxophonist André Roligheten (Gard Nilssen's Acoustic Unity and Supersonic Orchestra), trumpeter Thomas ...
Continue ReadingFriends & Neighbors: Circles

by Mark Corroto
Let's talk about Bird. Bird, not as in the sobriquet given to Charlie Parker but the actions of a bird, such as a parrot. Many a musician mechanically repeats the music of their musical heroes. For example, after Parker, we hear Phil Woods and Sonny Stitt recycling bebop. The Miles Davis' quintet of the 1960s begat the so-called young lions of the 1980s and 90s repeating the discoveries of post-bop jazz. So, when a Scandinavian quintet chooses a band name ...
Continue ReadingSteve Swell: Dances With Questions

by John Sharpe
American trombonist Steve Swell plays to the strengths of his talented cast of improvisers on the sprawling multifaceted Dances With Questions, a three-CD box set which documents his three day residency at the 2019 Krakow Jazz Autumn. The center piece is the 70-minute title cut for a dozen musicians, but the album also includes two discs of small group encounters captured in the city's legendary Alchemia club during the previous evenings. Swell, a veteran of the New York ...
Continue ReadingAndre Roligheten: Marbles

by Chris May
Tenor saxophonist André Roligheten is best known outside his native Norway, and wider Scandinavia, as a member of drummer Gard Nilssen's Acoustic Unity and as a composer/arranger in the berserker big band, Supersonic Orchestra. Nilssen returns the favour on Marbles, one of Roligheten's infrequent own-name releases. The album has grown out of a band Roligheten put together in spring 2021 for the Trondheim Jazz Festival, which had commissioned a new piece from him. The band was called ...
Continue ReadingRodrigo Amado Northern Liberties: We Are Electric

by John Sharpe
Portuguese saxophonist Rodrigo Amado hits the jackpot with the debut by his Northern Liberties quartet. He's found gifted collaborators in the Norwegian threesome of trumpeter Thomas Johansson, drummer Gard Nilssen and bassist Jon Rune Strøm. Amado's preferred domain is muscular free jazz. It's territory he's thoroughly explored with his Motion Trio, supplemented by guests like trumpeter Peter Evans and pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach, and with his This Is Our Language band with Joe McPhee. While the Scandinavian ...
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