I first heard the questing, structurally savvy Danish pianist, composer and bandleader Windfeld at the 2016 Ystad Sweden Jazz Festival, when I was so impressed that I wrote a profile on her for JJ. Aircraft, her first recording with her big band, had just been released to glowing reviews. Since then Windfeld has cut three more well-received big band albums, Latency, Orca and Determination, the last with Sweden’s excellent Bohuslän Big Band.
In that JJ profile, Windfeld spoke of the irony that she didn’t listen to that much big band music anymore, volunteering that “My main influences come more from small groups and masters like Cannonball Adderley and Kenny Wheeler.”
So it seems only natural that Windfeld should have developed a vibrant small group of her own, which makes its recording debut here. She’s worked with Johannes Vant (b) and Henrik Holst Hansen (d) for over a decade and they are very much in the pocket here. The Swede Hannes Bennich (as, ss) and the Poles Tomasz Dabrowski (t) and Marek Konarski (ts) are all expressive players, very much alive to the sometimes complex rhythmic and colouristic demands of Wingfeld’s charts.
The result is top quality music of many a compelling structure and mood, from the punchy grooves of Aldebaran (one of the brightest stars), Jupiter and the somewhat Monk-like Offroad Excursions to the pensive and moving lyricism of Burnout, Sea Widow and Letter To Lviv.
In her sleeve note for Aircraft Windfeld spoke of how she wanted her music to be “vibrant, colourful and physical, with what I can only call an inner necessity”. Today, while she is rightly keen to emphasise that her current sextet should in no way be seen as a stripped down version of her big band work, but rather a living and evolving entity of its own, that early characterisation of her musical ambitions applies with equal justification here. Highly recommended.
Discography
First Speech; Aldeberan; Burnout; Jupiter; Sea Widow; Holding On To Gas Balloons; Offroad Excursions; Letter To Lviv (45.07)
Windfeld (p); Tomasz Dabrowski (t); Hannes Bennich (as, ss); Marek Konarski (ts); Johannes Vant (b); Henrik Holst Hansen (d). Copenhagen, September 2023.
Stunt Records STUCD 23122
