Jakob Bro

Jan 13 2019

Best of 2018 #21: Jakob Bro – “Bay of Rainbows”

 

Jakob Bro‘s melodic perspective is nothing less than stunning, and it’s remarkable how he keeps finding new and inspired ways of presenting it.  This live trio session with drummer Joey Baron and bassist Thomas Morgan is just the latest example of Bro’s limitless ability to craft beauty of out thin air.  It’s been my personal preference when the guitarist works with a quartet or larger ensemble, but I could listen to this trio session every day for the rest of my life, and the first thing out of my mouth upon arriving in heaven would be, hey, send me back down, I need to go listen to Bay of Rainbows again.

Read more on Bird is the Worm.

Music from Copenhagen, Denmark.

Released on ECM Records.

Available at:  Amazon

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Nov 2 2018

Oh hell yes another Jakob Bro recording

 

When the water’s surface is clear and affords a view of what lies below, it’s like a window to an entirely different world.  The imagery is fuzzy and the motion of the underwater objects is blurred, but the lack of definition makes the colors radiate with a vibrancy that’s no less affecting than what we see above the water’s surface.  It’s the kind of thing I think about whenever I listen to the music of Jakob Bro.  His melodies shine with brilliant colors and they dart from side to side like fish within a bed of coral, and all of that imagery and activity bleeds in all directions, as if there was nothing to contain them.  It’s an effect that I find quite addictive.

Historically, I’ve found Bro’s trio work not quite as compelling as his quartet, quintet and large ensemble works.  Don’t get me wrong… I listen to all of this stuff, and often.  But that fuzziness to Bro’s music and the way it spreads out, it’s a quality that provides room for other musicians to fill that space with some of their own loveliness.  But Bro’s latest trio session, Bay of Rainbows, is about as beautiful as it gets.  This live performance at the Jazz Standard with bassist Thomas Morgan and drummer Joey Baron doesn’t require other musicians to fill the space opened up by the trio… they do the job themselves.  Whether it’s Bro stretching out a melody like morning sunlight filling room or Morgan spreading complementary shadows in all directions or Baron developing a comforting chatter, the trio’s presence is everywhere, and it’s like looking through the water’s surface at an entirely different world.

Here’s some beauty your life deserves and needs.

Your album personnel:  Jakob Bro (guitar) Thomas Morgan (double bass) and Joey Baron (drums).

Released on ECM Records.

Music from Copenhagen, Denmark.

Available at:  Amazon

By • Jazz Recommendations, Jazz Recommendations - 2018 • 0 • Tags: , ,

Apr 13 2018

The rundown of ECM Records ain’t over yet

 

We really need to have a talk about ECM Records.

 

Jakob Bro – Returnings

One of the qualities that made Jakob Bro‘s Balladeering trilogy so arresting was his willingness to be the wing man for the melodic desires of collaborators like Bill Frisell, Lee Konitz and Craig Taborn.  The guitarist can see an epic story of possibilities from the simple thesis statement of a melodic image, and that multi-perspective approach is what allowed him to simultaneously enhance and contrast his counterparts as they steered the ship (in their way).  It’s a big reason that Bro’s latest is so successful.  Palle Mikkelborg‘s trumpet beams through like moonlight, and Bro happily makes it sparkle in all the right places.  Bassist Thomas Morgan was there for those Balladeering triology recordings, so it shouldn’t come as any surprise that he syncs up with Bro seamlessly.  Morgan was also there for Bro’s ECM Records release Gefion, as was drummer Jon Christensen…  a modern master at setting down a rhythmic atmosphere where serenity thrives and volatility is allowed to flourish from time to time.  And it does, thankfully.  Title-track “Returnings” dishes out some heat and some dissonance, and some necessary context for all the beauty that came before.  Bro is one of my favorite guitarists on the scene.  Each new album is something more to treasure.

Learn more at ECM Records.  Available at Amazon.

 

Kristjan Randalu – Absence

Oh my god, this is gorgeous.  And it’s on fire.  The beauty is multi-faceted and looks to scatter in all directions.  It’s the blossoming plume of fireworks in the sky as reflected on the rippled surface of the ocean.  Pianist Kristjan Randalu and guitarist Ben Monder just keep coaxing new and exciting facets out of each melody, while drummer Markku Ounaskari keeps a steady current of electricity spurring everything forward, no matter how many directions it breaks in.  The lulls and surges in pacing just make things that much more dramatic.  Randalu and Monder put out the duo album Equilibrium a handful of years ago, and you can hear the seeds of Absence in it, but this is a diamond with an entirely different shine.  Their sympatico relationship isn’t new to Absence, but its rewards are so much greater.  I’m pretty well addicted to this recording.

Learn more at ECM Records.  Available at Amazon.

 

Arild Andersen – In-house Science

I mean no offense to tenor saxophonist Tommy Smith or drummer Paolo Vinaccia, but I’d have been just fine had Arild Andersen put out a solo album.  I can’t say that about many bassists, even those I adore the most, but there is something about the deep resonance of Andersen’s bass tones that just pulls me right in and leaves me captivated as he prowls down a melody.  It was his 1997 release Hyperborean that first riveted my attention in place.  Ironically, it was a large ensemble affair, but something how Andersen’s bass would suddenly emerge from the thick harmonic fog of a string section made me a fan for life before my first listen of one of his albums was complete.  Now, with that out of the way, his trio sessions with Smith and Vinaccia have floated my boat previously.. specifically their 2008 release Live at Belleville.  Their newest effort, In-house Science, is also a live one, this time around in Bad Ischl, Austria.  It’s no less wonderful.  My favorite moments in this session are the same from the Belleville performance… when Andersen and Smith swiftly trade melodic flurries along the back of Vinaccia’s galloping tempos.  It’s exciting as hell, and enchanting like mad in the way the melodies patiently develop at high speeds.

Learn more at ECM Records.  Available at Amazon.

 

Jarrett/Peacock/DeJohnette – After the Fall

This is a new release, but it’s not new music.  After the Fall was recorded back in 1998 at a live performance in Newark, New Jersey.  Pianist Keith Jarrett, bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Jack DeJohnette are three of the greatest jazz musicians ever.  This is a pleasant album.  There’s nothing particular notable or monumental about its release.  It wasn’t some legendary performance believed to go unrecorded and it wasn’t a one-time collaboration of three jazz giants.  It’s a pleasant live session and it’s nice that ECM decided to get it out there.  My introduction(s) to Jarrett’s music came in the form of more unconventional sounds, so sometimes I find it a bit underwhelming to hear him in a straight-ahead jazz session.  But then his immaculate lyricism shines through, and I’m reminded just how special the guy is.

Learn more at ECM Records.  Available at Amazon.

 

Nicolas Masson – Travelers

There are times that Nicolas Masson syncs up with the trio of pianist Colin Vallon, bassist Patrice Moret and drummer Lionel Friedli, and it’s always when the saxophonist settles into the prevailing serenity instilled by Vallon over the session.  But when Masson wants to go flying with a great flutter of wings, a fracture appears straight down the center of the piece, and it feels like two different visions welded together into a single album.  That doesn’t cause any great ruination, but it does leave something of a dissatisfying aftertaste.  On piano, Vallon has repeatedly shown a talent for conveying the immensity of a storm with nothing more than a whisper.  It’s an atmosphere that has to be respected, and when there’s a deviation, everything seems out of sorts.  Masson’s desire to leap through the air or paint a thick melody upon the surface of the song just doesn’t snap neatly into place.  And it goes a long way to illustrating why his trio with guitarist Roberto Pianca and drummer-pianist Emanuele Maniscalco worked so well.  The duo had a way of drawing the map of the song while adapting freely to veer off trail in a way the complemented Masson’s lyricism.  There’s some powerful moments on Travelers, but they come in small doses.

Learn more at ECM Records.  Available at Amazon.

 

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Feb 23 2015

I listen to all of this: The Jakob Bro “Balladeering Trilogy”

 

Jakob BroMarch 2015, Guitarist Jakob Bro has a new album coming out.  Titled Gefion, it features his strangely alluring mix of jazz and folk and ambient soundscapes.  And though it possesses the ingredients that typically complete your basic Nordic Jazz recording, Bro’s expressionism doesn’t fit so neatly into that general category.  Even when he’s being structurally obtuse, his music possesses a form and presence and melodic incisiveness that proves elusive to categorization.

In anticipation of his new album, I wanted to recap three of Bro’s excellent recordings.  In 2013, Bro wrapped up a planned trilogy of albums that began with 2009’s Balladeering, continued with 2011’s Time and ended with 2013’s December Song.  The music was composed for a small group of select musicians.  The albums each have their own personality, but definitely all sound as if they were formed from the same creative point of view.  This is peaceful music that presents itself with a simple, striking beauty that is often quite breathtaking.

Let’s begin…

 

Jakob Bro – Balladeering

Jakob Bro - "Balladeering"The 2009 release Balladeering started off the album trilogy.  Of the three recordings, it’s the one that most reflects the influence that Bill Frisell has had over modern guitarists.  His mix of jazz, folk and rock presented with a strikingly melodic, hazily ambient presence and sometimes ominous tone is stamped indelibly on this recording.  And while Jakob Bro is certainly his own man when it comes to a singular creative voice, if it can be said he came out of one particular “school of Jazz,” it would the Frisellian.

“Weightless” speaks directly to this distinction.  With its layers of melody and effects, it creates a swirling mist of sound whose form is defined by the path it drifts in as much as it is by its sequencing of one gorgeous note after the next.  “Terrace Place” runs very similar to this, but Konitz’s sax cuts through the fog like a knife.

“Vraa” sparks with life.  Konitz’s sax is thick with emotion, heart wide as the day is long.  Paul Motion’s drums match Konitz’s forward motion while kicking up a bit of propulsion.  On “Evening Song,” the melody serves as the source of propulsion, with lyricism as the fuel.

Aside from the lovely tone they provide, the use of steel-stringed guitar on “Starting Point (Acoustic)” portends an essential element that leads to the success of Balladeering‘s follow-up… Time.  But for this session, it’s all about the warmth those guitars generate, and how a distant beauty grows much closer and embraceable.

Your album personnel: Jakob Bro (guitar), Bill Frisell (guitar), Lee Konitz (alto sax), Ben Street (bass) and Paul Motian (drums).

Released on Loveland Records.

Jakob Bro – Time

Jakob Bro - "Time"Of the three albums in Bro’s trilogy, 2011’s Time is most cohesive and radiates the strongest presence.  As a result, its seaside ease conjures up the imagery of the shoreline and salt in the air, and translates the immensity and vastness of a large body of water without sacrificing the music’s calm serenity.

On “Sma Dyrr,” steel-string guitar glitters like sunlight.  Thomas Morgan’s bass is bright and resonant.  On “Swimmer,” guitar lines plume upward from the dancing flame of Lee Konitz’s sax.  The expression on “Cirkler” is one of determined will, but it grows increasingly drowsy, as if having spent all its energy before drifting off to sleep.  The Frisellian influence is stronger on “Fiordlands” and “Nat.”  On the former, the rhythmic touch by guitars and bass is almost hypnotic, while the latter track’s shimmery guitars incite an ethereal presence that drifts peacefully along, even as melodic fragments create an ominous tone that hangs in the air.  The quartet gets a lot of mileage out of the mix of earthy and mysterious tones on Time, and it’s a big reason for the album’s success.

Your album personnel:  Jakob Bro (guitar), Bill Frisell (guitar), Lee Konitz (alto sax) and Thomas Morgan (bass).

Released on Loveland Records.

Jakob Bro – December Song

Jakob Bro - "December Song"The final album of the trilogy was 2013’s December Song.  Overall, it possesses an ethereal presence wispier than that of its trio-mates and a formlessness that creates an undercurrent of tension, as if the ear recognizes that a tune can change direction at any one moment without warning.

Tracks like the enchanting “Giant,” on which Bro’s & Frisell’s guitar lines ascend upward like fireflies on a dark Summer night and “Laxness,” in which Lee Konitz’s sax bobs on the twin guitars’ peaceful ocean waves.  The solemn “Vinterhymne” wavers and shifts in and out of focus.  Konitz’s bright melodic light shades the song from one side while bassist Thomas Morgan works subtly, yet still resonantly from the opposite.

The album tracks that coalesce into a substantive form tend to feature Craig Taborn’s piano in a prominent role.  The brightly shining “Zygaena” sees Taborn’s piano walking out ahead with both guitars nearby at its side.  Together, they create a melodic cohesiveness enjoined with beautiful harmonies.  “Treehouse” takes a similar approach, but is expressed with serenity and patience.  “Kong Oscar,” on the other hand, has a bigger presence via a series of strong melodic surges.

But overall, it’s a track like “Risskov” that reflects the spirit of the album… an ambient languor struck through with lively melodic flares and enveloped by drifting harmonies and an ethereal presence.

Your album personnel:  Jakob Bro (guitar), Bill Frisell (guitar), Lee Konitz (alto sax), Craig Taborn (piano) and Thomas Morgan (double bass).

Released on Loveland Records.

*****

Jazz from the Copenhagen scene.

Available at:  Amazon | Direct from the artist

By • Artist Overviews, I Listen To All Of This, Jazz Recommendations, Jazz Recommendations - 2009 Releases, Jazz Recommendations - 2011 Releases, Jazz Recommendations - 2013 Releases • 0 • Tags: , ,