
DANIELSSON / NESET / LUND - Sun Blowing
ACT 9821-2
Marius Neset - tenor saxophone; Lars Danielsson - bass; Morten Lund -drums
A chance meeting on a train apparently provided the initial impetus that led to Morten Lund inviting Swedish bassist Danielsson and Norwegian sax wunderkind Neset to participate in a day’s recording in Copenhagen’s Milifactory Studio, and the results of this spontaneous Scandinavian summit meeting are contained in this fine album. Each player brought in the germ of three or four songs, but the session was deliberately set up with ‘as little planning as possible’ to exploit to the full the freedom implicit in the pianoless trio format. All three participants are superb players, and their common Scandi-jazz heritage seems to have ensured that their individual contributions were so highly compatible that the very first track they attempted, Danielsson’s joyously bluesy ‘Little Jump’, was nailed in the very first take.
Fans of Jan Garbarek’s work with the Jarret quartet of the 1970s will find much to enjoy here in the expansive, pentatonic melodies and general feeling of open, airy landscapes and invigorating Northern climate - engineer Siggi Loch’s judicious use of reverb clearly links us to the soundworld of the classic ECM recordings, and Neset’s keening tone and angular, folkloric melodicism recall his fellow Norwegian on tunes with titles like ‘Up North’ and ‘Folksong’. There’s a nod to his indebtedness to Brecker as well in the sole cover, a version of Don Grolnick’s ‘The Cost Of Living’. Danielsson’s rich tone and recalls fellow Swede Arild Anderson, and his composition ‘ Bla’ gets a particularly simpatico performance from Neset, while Lund is on top form throughout. The close, empathetic interplay of all three is so tight and focussed that the lack of a harmony instrument barely registers except as a sense of catheral-like space and airiness.
Reviewed by Eddie Myer
ACT 9821-2
Marius Neset - tenor saxophone; Lars Danielsson - bass; Morten Lund -drums
A chance meeting on a train apparently provided the initial impetus that led to Morten Lund inviting Swedish bassist Danielsson and Norwegian sax wunderkind Neset to participate in a day’s recording in Copenhagen’s Milifactory Studio, and the results of this spontaneous Scandinavian summit meeting are contained in this fine album. Each player brought in the germ of three or four songs, but the session was deliberately set up with ‘as little planning as possible’ to exploit to the full the freedom implicit in the pianoless trio format. All three participants are superb players, and their common Scandi-jazz heritage seems to have ensured that their individual contributions were so highly compatible that the very first track they attempted, Danielsson’s joyously bluesy ‘Little Jump’, was nailed in the very first take.
Fans of Jan Garbarek’s work with the Jarret quartet of the 1970s will find much to enjoy here in the expansive, pentatonic melodies and general feeling of open, airy landscapes and invigorating Northern climate - engineer Siggi Loch’s judicious use of reverb clearly links us to the soundworld of the classic ECM recordings, and Neset’s keening tone and angular, folkloric melodicism recall his fellow Norwegian on tunes with titles like ‘Up North’ and ‘Folksong’. There’s a nod to his indebtedness to Brecker as well in the sole cover, a version of Don Grolnick’s ‘The Cost Of Living’. Danielsson’s rich tone and recalls fellow Swede Arild Anderson, and his composition ‘ Bla’ gets a particularly simpatico performance from Neset, while Lund is on top form throughout. The close, empathetic interplay of all three is so tight and focussed that the lack of a harmony instrument barely registers except as a sense of catheral-like space and airiness.
Reviewed by Eddie Myer