Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Jonas Kullhammar: Son of a Drummer

203

Jonas Kullhammar: Son of a Drummer

By

View read count
Jonas Kullhammar: Son of a Drummer
Over the past several years, jazz fans have been quite lucky to hear a significant amount of new work from Scandinavian improvisers. However, most of the Scandinavian improvisers who have cracked the international jazz scene are committed to free improvisation. Those who embrace more traditional roots, while still dedicated to pushing at the boundaries of those roots, are not mentioned in the same breath as Mats Gustafsson or his compatriots. Swedish tenor man Jonas Kullhammar is one of a small legion of inside-outside jazz artists who could change that landscape.

Son of a Drummer is Kullhammar's fourth release for his Moserobie label. He's recorded free improvisation with Paal Nilssen-Love and folk-rock with Nicolai Dunger, but most of Kullhammar's recordings follow a snaky path of unbridled, gutbucket tenor amid a modal post bop setting, a la Sam Rivers or Alan Skidmore. Snake City North paired this free-swinging small group sound with the Norbotten Big Band for a 100% Proof aesthetic; Son of a Drummer is a bit more reined-in, allowing room for plaintiveness as well as high-energy music. With his working quartet of pianist Torbjörn Gulz, bassist Torbjörn Zetterberg and drummer Jonas Holgersson, Kullhammar approaches four originals and the Swedish jazz standard "Corny Waltz with a subdued fire.

"Hitman is an up-tempo swinger, coupling a sharp, staccato head with a wide modal wingspan. Kullhammar stretches his post bop chops in fine, heel-digging fashion, quickly edging into coarse multiphonics that show his lineage from Newk to Pharaoh and beyond. In some ways, though the rhythm section is tight and honed their backing of Kullhammar doesn't always fit his stretching exercises. "Stormen is a lilting folk ballad, its theme played perhaps a bit too cleanly, but as Gulz drops out for the first half of the tenor solo, Kullhammar nags a phrase in an intense, slow crackle, mining an entirely new set of dense textures from the tune's parameters.

Pianist Berndt Egerbladh's "Corny Waltz is given a decidedly relentless treatment, Kullhammar going for keening skronk as Zetterberg and Holgersson set up an intense thrum, Gulz's chords roiling less than might be but still providing able support. As an example of inside-outside playing, the quartet almost seems to be fighting for its identity rather than walking an aesthetic tightrope. It will be interesting to see how this group progresses over the next album or two, but for now Son of a Drummer is a worthy notch in its cap.

Track Listing

Hitman; Stormen; Bendiksen; Corny Waltz; The Rise & Fall of Sour T.

Personnel

Jonas Kullhammar: tenor saxophone; Torbj

Album information

Title: Son of a Drummer | Year Released: 2006 | Record Label: Moserobie

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Tramonto
John Taylor
Ki
Natsuki Tamura / Satoko Fujii
Duality Pt: 02
Dom Franks' Strayhorn
The Sound of Raspberry
Tatsuya Yoshida / Martín Escalante

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.