The Core: Roots

It has been over a decade since a release from the Norwegian jazz band The Core. Founded in 2001, the quartet released half a dozen albums before mostly going their separate ways. Saxophonist Kjetil Møster worked with Gard Nilssen, Mats Gustafsson, and Per Zanussi, pianist Erlend Slettevoll with Hedvig Mollestad and Petter Wettre, bassist Steinar Raknes with Tord Gustavsen, and drummer Espen Aalberg in the Basement Sessions with Jonas Kullhammar and Torbjorn Zetterberg.

Roots, the ensemble's ninth recording, follows Party (Moserobie, 2010) and is a great argument for the whole being much more than the sum of its parts. The quartet's music is focused on the '60s explorations of the new thing in jazz., not as repertory music, although they did once cover John Coltrane's Meditations (Impulse!, 1966) with the Bergen Big Band, but as inspiration. A better word might be respiration. The quartet seems to breathe in and, importantly, exhale the spirit of Coltrane's 1960's quartet.

Coltrane and his successors are apparent with the gong strikes which open "Dark Star." The quartet steamrolls into that familiar groove which fans of Trane's quartet desire. Møster's tenor saxophone is thrust forward by some Elvin Jones-like drumming and heavy McCoy Tyner inspired piano chords. The music penned by Møster, Raknes, and Aalberg would certainly please Coltrane and company. Riding on Raknes' bass line, Møster switches to soprano saxophone for "Orbis," as "My Favorite Things" comes to mind. The quartet transmits a spiritual Pharoah Sanders vibe with "Messi," delivering a seven-minute message which one could imagine lasting an entire hour in a live setting. The same is true of the brief storm that is "Chains," which, like all the music here, begs for a double length live recording.