Tobias Grim: Spring 2020

Locked down but cool, calm and collected in the midst of global strife, Swedish guitarist Tobias Grim and his equally cool, calm, and collected trio mates, bassist Magnus Bergström and drummer Adam Ross, took a couple of time suspended, life upended days in spring 2020 to jam on few new Grim tunes and some well-known standards that fit comfortably in all our songbooks.

If fuzzy gyrations, blurry distortions, technical pyrotechnics, and washes of improvisation are your guitar trio bag, then steer clear of Spring 2020. The tone and mood of these closeted sessions is clean, lean, and trad, a graceful and much needed break away from the frenzy and reigning chaos the entire world finds itself in with a vice like grip. "Be Blues" is a Grim original that sets the pace for the whole project, as the guitarist introduces us to his lyrical, uncluttered sound while his rhythm section falls in right on cue, swinging for all its worth. Bergström, having played with Grim before on the guitarist's revealing 2014 debut Brazil Lines (Imogena Records) is especially responsive to Grim's clear, bluesy tones , wrapping in and around Grim's running scales with a hardy depth all his own.

Spring 2020 is one sweet delicacy after another as Grim weaves a bright, soulful path through an exceptionally expressive and smooth collection, (just try not hitting replay on Herbie Hancock's "Dolphin Dance," Eddie Harris's "Freedom Jazz Dance," and Jimmy Van Huesen's luxurious "Here's That Rainy Day," or his own dancingly defiant "Spring 2020." Given that we're all prone to some degree of emotional malaise as these days take on the length of months and 2020 becomes a year we all hope to forget but know we never will, Spring 2020 serves as a warm, encouraging, uplifting respite.

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