Scandinavian Art Ensemble with Tomasz Stanko: The Copenhagen Sessions Vol. 2
The recent release of Vol. 1 of this 2016 pan-European endeavour was met with part-praise, part-reservation in Konstantin N. Rega’s JJ review. Acknowledging “an important discovery” Konstantin suggested that “expressed in not exactly pretty compositions, the music here does capture a distinct landscape”. He adds “Certainly belonging to the freestyle school […] For those used to Stacey Kent, Bill Evans or even Pat Metheny, the songs on The Copenhagen Sessions Vol. 1 could be from another planet.”
Quite so. But comparing apples with oranges is perhaps not the best way to underpin the sort of judgemental certainty which led Konstantin to assert that “There is a lack of musicality and sophistication here.” And, one has to ask, what exactly is “the freestyle school”? If you set this music in both the broader and more specific contexts of, e.g., the work of Mingus, George Russell, the AEC, Bill Dixon, Krzysztof Komeda and Stanko, the Spontaneous Music Ensemble or Pierre Dørge’s New Jungle Orchestra, an abundance of congruent “musicality and sophistication” becomes evident.
De gustibus non est disputandum can (should?) always be pleaded and I take no pleasure in seeking to contradict a JJ colleague. But to my ears, the octet that is the SAE offers music as sophisticated as it is primal, melding the consonant and the dissonant, composition and improvisation, swinging groove and free abstraction, the song-like and the shape-shifting in a range of distinctive compositions that are indeed (and thankfully) “not exactly pretty”.
I’ve long sung the praises of key latter-day Stanko associate Tomasz Dabrowski and here, as in Vol. 1, he and his colleagues conjure for the master an “on the edge” sequence of settings as poetically taut and chromatically vibrant as they are rhythmically fluid and formally malleable. Commencing with a tender yet flaring and probing reading of So Nice, the opening ballad track from Stanko’s 2009 Dark Eyes ECM masterpiece, the diversely atmospheric programme then features contrasting yet complementary pieces from, respectively, the Pole Tuznik, his compatriot Dabrowski, the Finn Sulkunen, the Dane Hass and the Pole Wosko.
Sample multi-equipped vocalist Sulkunen’s deeply cast, initially arco-underpinned April Moon, Hass’s now slow-groove and suspenseful, now fiercely swinging Anti-Freeze, with its coruscating solo from Tusnik, or Wosko’s concluding Sunrise, an ostensible simple yet potently built cross-rhythmic meditation with a tellingly paced outing from Hass. Like volume 1, here is a body of remarkable music to savour, as historically literate as it is exploratory, fresh and free.
Discography
So Nice; Morning Ballad; 3rd For Eruption; April Moon; Anti-Freeze; Sunrise (40.48)
Stanko (t); SAE: Johanna Elina Katerina Sulkunen (v); Tomasz Dabrowski (t); Snorri Sigurdarson (t); Thomas Hass (ts); Martin Fabricius (vib); Artur Tuznik (p); Richard Andersson (b); Radek Wosko (d). Copenhagen, 16 February 2016.
April Records CD 151CD
Andreas Toftemark / Benny Benack III Quintet: Roadmap
My review of Danish tenor saxophonist Toftemark’s previous April Records release La Gare, which featured the fine English trumpeter Gerard Presencer, ended with the advice “If the legacy of hard bop at its lasting best is your thing, don’t hesitate: you’ll love this.” The same goes for the present and further outstanding achievement that is Roadmap.
Here Presencer is replaced by the cracking trumpeter and co-leader Benny Benack III from Philadelphia, who, besides shaping fresh, deliciously crafted lines in the Brown, Dorham, Morgan and Hubbard tradition, contributes a fine vocal to his intimate and thoughtful ballad Again. The quality programme of all-original material, coming from across the quintet, is beautifully arranged, driven and caressed by the Rolls Royce-like power and interactive dynamic sensitivity evinced by the uniformly excellent Dane Sørensen, the Finn Moensivu and the American Peri.
As I have remarked before, Toftemark has a lovely, expressive and rounded tenor sound as well as an unhurried command of dynamics, time and line: ponder the apt tenderness of his work on Again (work which surely would have touched Billie Holiday’s heart) or relish the diversely sprung grooves of knock-out pieces like the title track, Icebreaker, New York Attitude and What Gets You. An informative sleeve-note from journalist and musician Morgan Enos of Hackensack NJ rounds out a thoroughly conceived, brilliantly executed and totally engaging release. Bravo!
Discography
Roadmap; Icebreaker; Again; New York Attitude; Underground; The Lemur; Tilvaerelse; What Gets You (41.17)
Toftemark (ts); Benack III (t); Rasmus Sørensen (p); Kaisa Moensivu (b); Joe Peri (d). Copenhagen 25-26 February 2025.
April Records APR 154CD
Jan Garbarek, Anouar Brahem, Ustad Shaukat Hussain: Madar
It seems appropriate to follow a review of Andreas Toftemark’s Roadmap with some commentary on this equally engaging ECM Luminessence vinyl reissue of music from 1992 – a very different “roadmap” of territory where improvisers from Norway, Tunisia and Pakistan conjure a trans-national, trans-genre confluence of Norwegian folk memory and jazz modality, Arabic maqams and Indian/Pakistani polyrhythm.
The session was oud master Brahem’s first recording with a jazz musician, as he reveals in his sleeve-note to the 2017 Blue Maqams cut with Django Bates, Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette. Two decades earlier had come Thimar, with Holland and John Surman. Excellent as these two albums remain, Madar is my favourite example of Brahem’s blending of his nudging and rippling Arabic figures with the improvisational spirit and emotive and spiritual potency of jazz.
The rhythmic vitality in the music is remarkable, especially on Sull lul, Jaw (a solo tabla piece) and Qaws, on all of which the late tabla master Ustad Shaukut Hussain (with whom Garbarek recorded on the 1990 Ragas and Sagas) shines. The intricate yet space-conscious Brahem infuses his every note and phrase with the life-force that is poetry, while Garbarerk’s sculpted tenor lines evince a wondrous command (and integrated diversity) of tone, emotional projection and rhythmic attack, exemplified by the sixteen minute treatment of the Norwegian folk melody that is Sull Lull.
And the emotional range here is no less striking, typified by the dynamic, rhythmic and tonal extremes of Brahem’s duet with Garbarek on the labile Madar (signifying in Arabic a complete journey or loop) and the shape-shifting, ultimately rocking and piping, richly affirmative Qaws.
While the music is superb, questions have to be raised about the two-LP packaging. The three fine colour photographs of the participants on the original CD are reproduced in larger format, but photographer Knut Bry’s name is absent. As on the CD, the personnel details tell us that Garbarek plays tenor and soprano saxophone, but I can detect no soprano here. On every track on which Shaukut Hussain plays, a discreet tanpura-like drone can be heard: as on the CD it is uncredited, as are various vocal touches from Brahem and Hussain. Finally, the programme ends with a near-minute of solo, slowly spread piano chords: as on the CD, the identity of the musician is withheld. Why?
PS: And isn’t it about time that an Eberhard Weber release graced this Luminessence series?
Discography
LP1: Sull Lull / Madar; Sebika (33.30)
LP2: Bahia; Remy; Jaw / Joron; Qaws, Epilogue ( 43.26)
Garbarek (ts, ss); Brahem (oud); Hussain (tabla). Oslo, August 1992.
ECM 555 39448
