Results for "Sven-Ake Johansson"
Elastic Bricks: Oùat

by Mark Corroto
The Berlin-based piano trio Oùat releases their first album with the seemingly paradoxical title Elastic Bricks. If you listen closely, there is nothing incongruent nor oxymoronic about the music. The studio recording from 2021 by pianist Simon Sieger, bassist Joel Grip, and drummer Michael Griener is an all acoustic instrumental affair with a twist. The vinyl ...
Moers Festival 2020

by Martin Longley
Moers Festival Eventhalle Moers Germany May 29-June 1, 2020 Under the lockdown, this year's Moers Festival wasn't able to welcome its accustomed audience in the flesh, but artistic director Tim Isfort refused to cancel or postpone, instead opting to livestream the entire four-day proceedings, with artists ...
Peter Hansen - Peeter Uuskyla: JULY 1, 1979

by Mark Corroto
The year was 1979. Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols died, so did jazz legend Charles Mingus. While punk rock was in a duel with disco, jazz as commercial music was dying the death of a thousand cuts. Miles Davis was in hiding, as jazz fusion (the disco equivalent in jazz) was forcing the retirement of ...
Neuköllner Modelle: Zyklus 1

by Mark Corroto
The third release by the trio Neuköllner Modelle, saxophonist Bertrand Denzler, bassist Joel Grip, and drummer Sven-Åke Johansson, Zyklus 1 might be considered a zen chronicle. The four lengthy tracks reveal the true nature of improvised sound, group interaction, and thus, the essence of meditation. Like meditation, their music is very simple, yet extremely hard to ...
Mads la Cour Quartet: Hule

by Mark Corroto
Danish cornetist (who doubles on flugelhorn) Mads la Cour maintains a fluid conception of his band Almugi. Almugi has been large, as in his eight piece Almugi Large Ensemble (WhyPlayJazz, 2015) and small as in Duo (WhyPlayJazz, 2015) with drummer Anders Mogensen. With Hule, he settles on a quartet line-up featuring saxophonist/clarinetist Lars Greve (August Rosenbaum, ...
Sven-Åke Johansson's Blue For A Moment

by Mark Corroto
Sven-Åke Johansson Blue for a Moment NI VU NI CONNU 2017 In conjunction with the film of the same name, the LP boxset Blue for a Moment was prepared as a limited release (250 signed copies) of Swedish musician Sven-Åke Johansson's music. It is in no way a complete retrospective. ...
Mats Gustafsson: Piano Mating

by Mark Corroto
Sure, saxophonist Mats Gustafsson is a rock star. A star in the same sense that Thurston Moore is a jazz artist or Merzbow generates ambient sounds. It's not so much that we would expect to see those three gentlemen receiving a Grammy Award, but that imitators of their styles will. Someday. In other words, innovators pioneer ...
Axel Dörner/Franz Hautzinger/Mazen Kerbaj/Carl Ludwig Hübsch: Ariha Brass Quartet

by Mark Corroto
The visual component of music has seemingly always been given short shrift by critics, and for that matter, listeners too. Except for the rare instances where a person is born with an acute synesthesia, or the ability to see musical notes as colors or shapes, perception of sound is limited to emotion and the sensation of ...
Sven Ake Johansson: Jazzbox

by Mark Corroto
Funny how listening to the five-CD Jazzbox by free jazz drummer Sven-Åke Johansson may remind you of the British punk rock band The Clash's first hit single Train In Vain" (1980). Like Joe Strummer and Mick Jones, Johansson's career has been one that has worked to challenge the language of American music. In The Clash's case, ...
Jakob Bro / Thomas Morgan / Jon Christensen: Copenhagen, Denmark, July 8, 2012

by Henning Bolte
Jakob Bro / Thomas Morgan / Jon ChristensenHofteatretCopenhagen, DenmarkJuly 8, 2012The Copenhagen Jazz Festival, with its more than 1,000 concerts in 10 days spread over more than 100 venues and stages in all parts of the Danish capital is like a musical monsoon cloudburst. The concerts range from big international stars ...