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Toldam / Riedel / Berg / Wiklund / Christensen: Tak for dit brev
by Troy Dostert
Danish pianist Simon Toldam has made his mark as an abundantly creative improviser, most recently manifest on his work with Ways--a duo comprised of saxophonist Brodie West and drummer Evan Cartwright. Their Fortunes (Lorna Records, 2020) was an album defined by unusual gestures and subtle refractions, keeping the listener guessing throughout. Toldam's latest release, Tak for dit brev (the title translates as “Thank You For Your Letter") isn't as overtly adventurous, but it still possesses plenty of quiet charm, and ...
read moreSimon Toldam Trio: Omhu
by Jakob Baekgaard
The bebop and hard bop revolution of the forties and fifties made speed a virtue as razor-sharp unison lines cut through the rhythms. A saxophonist like Johnny Griffin was praised for his fast way of playing that also underlined his technical virtuosity, and the muscular style signaled a music completely in touch with modernity. Nowadays, there is little new land to conquer in terms of speed, but a new millennium has opened a frontier where silence and ...
read moreKresten Osgood Quintet: Kresten Osgood Quintet Plays Jazz
by Dan McClenaghan
One way of getting a handle on a jazz artist's style is a perusal of their “played with," “recorded with" resume. Danish drummer Kresten Osgood has collaborated in the recording studio with the likes of pianists Paul Bley and Masabumi Kikuchi, bassist Mark Dresser and saxophonist Sam Rivers--free-flying iconoclasts all. The drummer/bandleader lives up to that characterisation here. Kristen Osgood Quintet Plays Jazz, a wide-tanging two CD set, explores some lesser-known tunes from some of music history's freer ...
read moreKresten Osgood Quintet: Kresten Osgood Quintet Plays Jazz
by Mark Corroto
Danish drummer Kresten Osgood achieves the musical equivalent of pay-it-forward with Kresten Osgood Quintet Plays Jazz. His ensemble of up-and-coming Copenhagen musicians delivers convincing renditions of some archetypal compositions, plus three originals by the leader. The choice of music on these two discs exposes the quintet to many types of possible criticism. Listeners familiar with the music of Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington, Eric Dolphy and Charles Mingus most certainly have seminal recordings of these artists burned into their ...
read moreThe Firebirds: Aladdin's Dream
by Ian Patterson
Three years on from The Firebirds (ILK Music, 2015), a riveting trio interpretation of the music of Igor Stravinsky--and to a lesser extent of Aram Khatjaturjan--Stefan Pasborg turns his attention closer to home with the music of Danish composer Carl Nielsen (1865-1931). The debut recording was in Pasborg's name but second time out the trio, featuring Anders Banke and Anders Filipsen, has adopted The Firebirds as its working name. It's a catchy, marketable name but it also feels appropriate, for ...
read moreTomo Jacobson: When the sleeping fish turn red and the skies start to sing in C major I will follow you to the end
by Dan McClenaghan
Copenhagen-based bassist Tomo Jacobson--employing his musical vehicle, Moonbow--creates a musical ruckus with When the sleeping fish turn red and the skies start to sing in C-major I will follow you to the end (how's that for a CD title?). And it sounds like a ruckus in the blacksmith shop--metallic, slashing guitar, raucous, ragged-edged, tin/brass saxophones over a pumping-bellows bass and hammering drums. All this, and the sounds still has a feeling of structure--albeit a loose one--that allows the individual instrumentalists ...
read moreTomo Jacobson: When the sleeping fish turn red and the skies start to sing in C major I will follow you to the end
by Jakob Baekgaard
Every record seeks its ideal listener, but this concept is very abstract and often remains a riddle, but to Polish-born bassist, Tomo Jacobson, his ideal listener is very real and responded in the best possible way to the music on his album When the sleeping fish turn red and the skies start to sing in C major I will follow you to the end. The name of the listener is the iconic bassist and composer, William Parker, ...
read moreZAKS: Live at 5e
by Jakob Baekgaard
In the music business, bootlegs are generally considered a bad thing. Often poorly recorded and not sanctioned by the artists. However, while some people with dubious intentions have definitely speculated in earning quick cash, there are also others, who have simply recorded music because they were such big fans that it was a necessity to document everything by a certain artist or group. One of the most famous examples of this kind of musical passion is the ...
read moreMark Solborg / Herb Robertson: Tuesday Prayers
by Jakob Baekgaard
Nothing will come out of nothing, but maybe, if two musical friends meet in a sacred place, notes will start to sing. In the beginning, everything is just a sketch, a preparation for actual composition. The ancient flute whispers and a steel string guitar maps the railroads of faraway places. The flute becomes a trumpet and says, “I know you." They have played together before, Herb Robertson and Mark Solborg. Tonight, they speak together ...
read moreDawda Jobareth/Stefan Pasborg: Duo
by Karl Ackermann
Dawda Jobareth and Stefan Pasborg's Duo is unique on more than one level. A Gambian native, Jobareth is an authentic West African griot. The term--broadly associated with that region's storytellers/oral historians/minstrel artistic class--applies only to authentic griots, though the expression is widely borrowed or misused. Also unusual is the diversity of music that Jobareth has embarked on at this early stage of his career. His debut album, Northern Light, Gambian Night (Sterns Africa, 2011) was a highly acclaimed amalgamation of ...
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