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::k4:
a r t i s t :: Jakob Bro
t i t l e :: Gefion
d a t e :: 2015-00-00
l a b e l :: ECM
g e n r e :: Jazz
s o u r c e :: CD
b i t r a t e :: 219 kbps avg
e n c o d e r :: LAME 32bits version 3.98.4
t r a c k s :: 8
p l a y t i m e :: 39:42
s i z e :: 63.07MB
tracklist
1 Gefion 10:36
2 Copenhagen 4:26
3 And They All Came Marching Out Of The 4:34
Woods
4 White 5:09
5 Lyskaster 4:18
6 Airport Poem 3:32
7 Oktober 4:21
8 Ending 2:46
releasenotes
It's been a long time coming. Jakob Bro made his first ECM appearance as a
member of drummer Paul Motian's twin-sax/triple-guitar band on the late
drummer's Garden of Eden (2006). Three more years passed before he returned,
this time as a member of Tomasz Stanko's trans-European quintet on 2009's Dark
Eyesùa group that evolved considerably from its early performance at Norway's
2009 Molde International Jazz Festival to a far more confident showing a year
later at the TD Ottawa Jazz Festival.
And so, perhaps, it's not that unusual that it should take another six years
for Bro to make his third appearance on the label, but this time as a leader.
Gefion is a definitive sampling of the Danish guitarist's reserved approach to
music-making, in this case with a positively empathic trio including one ECM
legend in drummer Jon Christensen, who has appeared on well over sixty
recordings for the label; and one younger player in bassist Thomas Morganùwho
has, since his 2006 label debut on John Abercrombie's Wait Till You See Her,
gone on to appear on another five dates with artists ranging from Craig Taborn
and Masabumi Kikuchi to Giovanni Guidi, David Virelles...and Stanko.
That Stanko is a common factor amongst these three musiciansù Christensen
playing with the trumpeter on his career-defining LitaniaùThe Music of
Krzysztof Komeda (1997) and, the following year, the equally impressive From
The Green Hill, while Morgan was a member of the trumpeter's stellar New York
Quartet heard on 2013's Wislawaùis nothing more than a happy coincidence,
though the fact that all three spent time with Stanko speaks to the Polish
trumpeter's good taste...and the three musicians' inimitable abilities.
Gefion will come as no real surprise to those who've followed Bro's career.
His ECM output may, at least for now, be relatively diminutive, but he's been
busy releasing albums on his own Loveland Records imprint, including a trilogy
of recordings featuring Bill Frisell (a seminal influence) and Lee Konitz, in
addition to other projects like 2012's ambitious Bro/Knak, where the
guitarist's materialùwritten for a variety of artists including Morgan,
Frisell, Virelles, the recently deceased Kenny Wheeler, Paul Bley and others,
including a choir, strings and harpùis then transmuted and transmogrified on a
companion disc by Danish electronic musician Thomas Knak. Bro has also been
touring with Morgan and, at least some of the time, Christensen, so there was
plenty of extant chemistry when the trio entered Oslo's Rainbow Studio in
November, 2013 to record these eight Bro originals.
While the spirit of Frisell has long loomed over Bro, it's increasingly
subsumed in an even sparer approach to both the gorgeous lines Bro weaves and
his more subtle use of effects to broaden his expansive soundscapes. Subtle
use of looping, delay and reverb, for example, create a finely spun
undercurrent on the ten-minute title track that opens Gefion.
Bro begins alone, creating a whisper-quiet cushion based on a repeated
three-note motif. Christensen is the next to enter, with his
characteristically dark cymbals gradually overtaking Bro as the guitarist
fades to dark briefly around the two-minute mark, leaving the drummer alone to
add judicious use of his kit. When Bro reenters, it's more definitive yet
still atmospheric as he continues to use a volume pedal and delay to shape
overlapping layers that set up Morgan's entry as a melodic foil to the
guitarist's delivery, around the three-minute mark, of the composition's
Americana-tinged melody and simple but effective changes. Built over a rubato
foundation, the whole thing, indeed, feels built like a delicate house of
cardsùfirm, even as the trio speaks with a single voice, yet a deceptive whole
capable of hanging together only so long as all three are together.
Bro has long been known for tremendous patience and an ability to create a
delicate sense of unpredictable inevitability, as he did under less than ideal
conditions at the 2012 ELBJazz Festival in Hamburg, Germany. And if Frisell's
inescapable Americana roots are part of Bro's heart then so, too, is an
inescapable sense of melancholy at the core of "Copenhagen," where the
guitarist's gentle fingerpicking provides the context, Christensen's delicate
cymbals the canvas, and Morgan's relentless lyricism the focus. Morgan's tone
may be more Charlie Haden-informed wood than the gut-punching resonance of
Arild Andersen but, with each passing year, heùlike Broùcontinues to reflect
his roots while, at the same time, becoming increasingly unmistakableùand
instantly identifiable.
While Christensen has long given up explicit time-keeping, it doesn't prevent
Bro's trio from possessing considerable propulsion. Morgan's eighth
note-driven lines anchor "And They All Came Marching Out Of" as Christensen's
cymbals suggest more than they actually articulate, even when he begins to add
toms and the occasional sharp snare hit to the picture. Bro, this time up
front in both the mix and the music, builds his improvisation with
characteristic care, but what he refuses to show in explicit virtuosity he
more than makes up for in invention with his wonderful blend of melodic
fragments, elegant cascades and temporally unfettered ideations. His tone is
warm, rich and clear; like Frisell, Bro is largely a Fender (or
Fender-inspired) man these days; while neither guitarist actually twangs,
there's a sense of clarity between the notes that is characteristic of Leo
Fender's instruments. No matter how many notes are layeredùand with Bro taking
considerable advantage of open strings, that can be plentyùeverything is
lucent for the ear to behold, even as held notes gradually fade into the
background before disappearing entirely.
The trio's chemistry infuses the entire forty-minute recording, but can be
heard most clearly on the rubato ballad "White" where, at one point, Bro's
descending lines are telepathically captured and recapitulated by Morgan,
while on the minor-keyed and appropriately titled closer, "Ending,"
Christensen's cymbal work is particularly in synch with Bro, before both he
and Morgan exit, leaving Bro alone to create an ethereal, near-celestial
ending that brings Gefion full circle.
Bro may not demonstrate the chops that seem necessary to impress those who
measure their music in notes-per-second. But as SONAR's Stephan Thelen
remarked in a recent interview for liner notes to the group's upcoming Black
Light (Cuneiform, 2015), "I think it's sad that the concept of the 'star' is
so important in our culture, but I see a growing number of musicians and
groups interested in leaving that concept behind and letting the music be the
star." Clearly, with Bro, Morgan and Christensen, the music is, indeed, the
star and, with Gefion, one that burns softly but brightlyùa harbinger,
hopefully, of more to come from this subtle, sublime and painstakingly
understated trio.
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Jakob_Bro-Gefion-(ECM_2381)-CD-2015-k4