Vilhelm Bromander Unfolding Orchestra: Jorden Vi Ärvde (Thanatosis Produktion THT41)
In 2023, Swedish bassist and composer Vilhelm Bromander released his new big band’s debut album. That ensemble now takes its name from the recording – Unfolding Orchestra. Their second album Jorden Vi Ärvde (“The Earth We Inherited”) reflects on the state of our planet. Compositions and arrangements are by Bromander, who draws on Indian dhrupad music, Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra and Keith Jarrett’s classic American quartet with Haden, Dewey Redman and Paul Motian.
Pianist Alex Zethson introduces the plangent theme of Jorden Vi Ärvde, Den Skall Oss Också Ärvas, which is then explored by Bromander and legendary Swedish clarinettist Christer Bothén (on bass clarinet). The tempo picks up, to make the track a glorious tribute to the work of the Liberation Music Orchestra. Bromander acknowledges a debt to the Liberation Music Orchestra on his ballad Erde. The composition expresses what Bromander calls the album’s “elegiac fight song” – a battle more mystical than violent.
Tenor saxophonist Elin Forkelid has stylistic affinities with Dewey Redman – hence For Dewey, Bromander’s magnificent homage to Keith Jarrett’s classic quartet of the 1980s. The album concludes with Calliope, which reflects Bromander’s deep engagement with Indian classical tradition. He calls it “a raga-inspired song where the harp acts as our swarmandal, establishing the tonality” – referring to the zither-like Indian instrument. The track begins in free tempo, and gradually acquires a gently swinging pulse. There are solos from Christer Bothén and saxophonist Martin Küchen. The bassist’s arrangements are masterly.
Having met him, I can say that Bromander is a modest young fellow – and his modesty is not justified. This is a superb album of original compositions, of rare quality and fine playing. It’s amazing that I’d not heard of any of the musicians. Though their influences are clear, the interpretations on this album are so brilliant, they promise more. I look forward to hearing Bromander develop into a really original talent.
Kazzrie Jaxen & Don Messina: The Dance (New Artists Records NA1075)
Bassist Don Messina met Lennie Tristano in 1973, while accompanying a friend to his weekly lessons. He was 17, and had just started playing double bass. A few years later, he realised he needed to study with Tristano, and called him to take lessons. But sadly, the pianist died shortly after, in November 1978. Soon, however, Messina met a Tristano-school player who was an excellent teacher – tenor saxophonist Fred Amend, with whom he studied for 14 years. He also got to know pianist Sal Mosca, a Tristano-school master, which revolutionised his approach to music.
Kazzrie Jaxen studied with Tristano in the 70s, playing with Warne Marsh, Lenny Popkin and Eddie Gomez. Tristano presented her in a solo piano concert at Carnegie Recital Hall. In 2009, she formed a quartet with Messina, drummer Bill Chattin and tenor saxophonist Charley Krachy. The group lasted 10 years, and recorded two albums. Bassist and pianist have now got together again to release a superb duo album, recorded in 2019, live at Mahwah library concert hall, New Jersey. It opens with My Melancholy Baby, which begins with Jaxen’s off-mic vocals and solo piano, at an ad lib tempo – an idiosyncratic approach that’s intriguing. Her singing reflects Lester Young’s approach of having to know the lyrics in order to interpret the song. With a portentous arpeggio she announces a groove, and Messina comes in wonderfully attuned.
You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To is uptempo and powerfully swinging – and such an original conception, I’d call it a re-composition. Follow is not from the Great American Songbook – but is still a gentle and beguiling composition. It’s good to have the very Tristano-like interpretation of Lee Konitz’s rarely performed and ingenious composition Kary’s Trance. Jaxen’s wonderfully sinuous reworking of Confirmation is absorbing.
Jaxen has the sound of a Tristano-school player, who hears every note and feels every beat. She’s a great jazz pianist, incisive, inventive and orchestral. Messina is a fine bassist, and with his muscular playing, one doesn’t feel the lack of a drummer. A superb pairing, and a magnificent album.
Georgia Mancio and Alan Broadbent: A Story Left Untold (Roomspin Records RR0009)
Vocalist Georgia Mancio and pianist Alan Broadbent have been collaborating for 12 years, on three albums: Songbook in 2017, Quiet Is The Star in 2021 and now this collection of originals co-written by the duo. Bassist Andrew Cleyndert is co-producer with Mancio, and with drummer Dave Ohm is present on most tracks. The 10 songs were written from 2016-24, and recorded 2023-24.
The Love I Left Behind is a ballad in ad lib tempo, inspired by Scottish poet John Glenday’s “For My Wife, Reading in Bed”. It’s a piano/vocal duet sung in English and Italian – Mancio’s second language. A Story Left Untold closes the album. But the highlight for me is the wonderful ballad In The Afternoon. The composition has what Alec Wilder would recognise as a wonderful harmonic step from minor to major. The delightful From Me To You is a mid/uptempo number in loose Latin rhythm. When The Time Has Come To Part is a gorgeous, memorable mid-tempo composition; Same Old Moon is a plangent uptempo number. The album ends with an unexpected and beautiful orchestral version of the title track.
Mancio belongs to that comparatively rare breed of singer, the interpreter of the lyric. The interpreter is like an actor in a play, or a poetry reading – they give a dramatic performance. “Interpreting the words” means “interpreting them like an actor” – a film or radio actor, not a stage actor. A minimal requirement for an interpreter is that the lyrics are intelligible. But “interpreting the lyrics” is not the same as “singing them intelligibly”. Stage actors enunciate because they must be heard; likewise jazz interpreters, since they want the meaning to be clear. But meaningful interpretation is not just clarity of diction.
Billie Holiday began the tradition of jazz interpretation, which she achieved through mastery of the new microphone technology. Jazz singing has two further essential features in addition to interpreting a lyric. Jazz singers improvise a line, and create beautiful tone or distinctive sound. With Mancio, as with Holiday, the improvisation serves the interpretation rather than distracting from it. She aims at tonal beauty, and has many ways of achieving it. But her virtuosity is not ostentatious like that of Ella Fitzgerald or Sarah Vaughan, neither of whom is an interpreter of the lyric. Her new album is a wonderful example of the jazz interpreter’s art.
