HAAKON GRAF/ /ERIK SMITH / PER MATHISEN - Sunrain
Losen Records LOS 163-2
Haakon Graf: keyboards; Erik Smith: drums; Per Mathisen: bass.
Recorded Olsen Bar Oslo August 2015
(with live DVD of a performance at Olsen Bar, Oslo, December 2014)
Apparently, sunrain is a phenomenon when, after several days of rain, the sunshine begins to peep through the showers. The press release suggests that this is a Scandinavian thing… they’ve obviously never visited Manchester (although, come to think of it, I’m not sure that the sun does much peeping there).
Graf has been playing on the Scandinavian jazz scene for long enough to have earned the title ‘legend’ and his ability to play two keyboards simultaneously lends an intriguing edge to these performances. Watching the DVD, you see him playing so nonchalantly that it is easy to miss the fact that he is playing two keyboards at different tempos with different melodies to produce an interplay of sounds that gives the trio presence and depth. That the keyboard playing alone is well worth listening only tells half the story.
Mathisen has a distinguished international career that has involved playing with, to my knowledge Bill Bruford, Geri Allen, Teri Lynn Carrington, and Terje Rypdal (as well as his wife, Olga Konkova). On these sets, he plays a sympathetic bass that supports Graf’s masterful playing while also occasionally cutting loose and working up some intricate and challenging lines of his own.
Supporting the bass and keyboards, Smith plays a wicked backing that swings vigorously and pushes the rhythms in a range of directions.
Jazz-funk is, for me, one of those byways of jazz that can lead to repetitive, unimaginative and rather dull music which had its day in the 1980s. So, it is a surprise to hear the music on this CD described with that term. Certainly, trade-mark dubious titles like ‘Fat Freddy’s Cat’ or ‘Thrustin’ or ‘Funkalectual’ are present and correct, and Graf opts for Yamaha S80 and Motif keyboards which can create sounds from the earlier incarnations of jazz-funk. But this is such expressive music that it has completely broken my prejudices. Overall, I would hesitate to file this under ‘jazz-funk’ – it is jazz, it is funky, it does groove wildly – but only because the interplay of the three musicians gives a master-class in live playing that continually sounds like all three are improvising.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
Losen Records LOS 163-2
Haakon Graf: keyboards; Erik Smith: drums; Per Mathisen: bass.
Recorded Olsen Bar Oslo August 2015
(with live DVD of a performance at Olsen Bar, Oslo, December 2014)
Apparently, sunrain is a phenomenon when, after several days of rain, the sunshine begins to peep through the showers. The press release suggests that this is a Scandinavian thing… they’ve obviously never visited Manchester (although, come to think of it, I’m not sure that the sun does much peeping there).
Graf has been playing on the Scandinavian jazz scene for long enough to have earned the title ‘legend’ and his ability to play two keyboards simultaneously lends an intriguing edge to these performances. Watching the DVD, you see him playing so nonchalantly that it is easy to miss the fact that he is playing two keyboards at different tempos with different melodies to produce an interplay of sounds that gives the trio presence and depth. That the keyboard playing alone is well worth listening only tells half the story.
Mathisen has a distinguished international career that has involved playing with, to my knowledge Bill Bruford, Geri Allen, Teri Lynn Carrington, and Terje Rypdal (as well as his wife, Olga Konkova). On these sets, he plays a sympathetic bass that supports Graf’s masterful playing while also occasionally cutting loose and working up some intricate and challenging lines of his own.
Supporting the bass and keyboards, Smith plays a wicked backing that swings vigorously and pushes the rhythms in a range of directions.
Jazz-funk is, for me, one of those byways of jazz that can lead to repetitive, unimaginative and rather dull music which had its day in the 1980s. So, it is a surprise to hear the music on this CD described with that term. Certainly, trade-mark dubious titles like ‘Fat Freddy’s Cat’ or ‘Thrustin’ or ‘Funkalectual’ are present and correct, and Graf opts for Yamaha S80 and Motif keyboards which can create sounds from the earlier incarnations of jazz-funk. But this is such expressive music that it has completely broken my prejudices. Overall, I would hesitate to file this under ‘jazz-funk’ – it is jazz, it is funky, it does groove wildly – but only because the interplay of the three musicians gives a master-class in live playing that continually sounds like all three are improvising.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
