This is the second album from the Norwegian band Bangkok Lingo. They display nothing of the Nordic cool stereotype, instead opting for a brand of music borrowing from both jazz history and sounds from around the globe. As one might expect from a quintet containing two percussionists, they rely heavily on emphatic rhythm to put their story over.
Each piece kicks off with a fairly basic melody (although not always unattractive) from which the horns take their lead in time-honoured fashion, the mood invariably highly energetic as the horns punch out their solos. The tempos vary in their derivations but remain mainly high octane throughout.
To give credence to the band’s eclecticism, the front-men, in tandem, punch it out in a similar manner to many line-ups from the 60s and Watching Winter Turn To Spring has a theme that could have easily come from the Abdullah Ibrahim songbook.
Bangkok Lingo are clearly a group forging their own path on the European jazz scene.
Discography
We’re Still Open; Burning Passion; Bang Tao Beach; Watching Winter Turn To Spring; Tomorrow’s Finally Here; Bang Tao Skit; I Thought I Knew; Milk And Blood; Vardesvingen (Bonus Track) (51.23)
Lyder Ovreas Roed (t, flh, g); Lauritz Skeidsvoll (reeds); Olav Imerslund (b); Henrik Haland (d); Snorre Bjerk (pc). Bergen, Norway, 2021.
NXN NXN2012
