JAF Trio – JAF Trio
(We Jazz Records WJCD25)
Adele Sauros (saxophone); Joonas Tuuri (bass); Frederik Emil Bülow (drums)
We Jazz Records is a label based in Helsinki releasing cutting edge jazz and also organising the annual We Jazz Festival. Over the last couple of years they have produced a lot of really interesting albums showcasing the current batch of exciting new talent mainly from Finland.
Latest in the line is this debut album from the JAF trio. They formed up as a trio in 2017 and won the “Rising Star” award at the festival that year. It's a young Finnish-Danish band, named from the musician's initials, bassist Joonas Tuuri, saxophonist Adele Sauros and drummer Frederik Emil Bülow.
Sauros is already becoming something of a star on the Finnish scene, but she also has a London quartet which is due to record sometime soon. I missed their London gig last year, but hopefully they will be back sometime soon. She also plays in several other bands and for a while ended up running her own jazz club in Helsinki.
Tuuri plays in any number of different bands including the young Bowman Trio, and he also has his own quartet.
Frederik Emil Bülow is the Danish component in the group, and he has two albums of his own with the interestingly named Bangin' Bülows Nice Jazz Quartet – a group of friends all from the same village. He composed most of the tracks on this album, and tellingly his website says “My specialisation is odd meters”.
The music is indeed a clever combination of complex rhythmic patterns, intelligent improvisations and simple lyrical themes. Compositions by drummers can sometimes be too clever rhythmically and too drum-heavy, but that's not the case here, this is a real trio of equals. In fact the drums tend to shuffle away in the background providing propulsion and support rather than pushing themselves forward.
There are tracks where the bass takes the lead, with Sauros chipping in with the melody and the drums in the background. Only on the final track do we get a drum solo and then it's delightfully delicate and understated.
The opening track Ninth Row of the Fifth Floor has already been released as a single. It starts with a simple melody in two different tempos over a walking bass with drums in the background. The bass gives the track a slight film noir feel. Sauros takes a fine solo with the drums providing the propulsion.
Overall this is an interesting and absorbing debut album, and I'm sure we'll be hearing more of them in the future.
Reviewed by Peter Slavid
(We Jazz Records WJCD25)
Adele Sauros (saxophone); Joonas Tuuri (bass); Frederik Emil Bülow (drums)
We Jazz Records is a label based in Helsinki releasing cutting edge jazz and also organising the annual We Jazz Festival. Over the last couple of years they have produced a lot of really interesting albums showcasing the current batch of exciting new talent mainly from Finland.
Latest in the line is this debut album from the JAF trio. They formed up as a trio in 2017 and won the “Rising Star” award at the festival that year. It's a young Finnish-Danish band, named from the musician's initials, bassist Joonas Tuuri, saxophonist Adele Sauros and drummer Frederik Emil Bülow.
Sauros is already becoming something of a star on the Finnish scene, but she also has a London quartet which is due to record sometime soon. I missed their London gig last year, but hopefully they will be back sometime soon. She also plays in several other bands and for a while ended up running her own jazz club in Helsinki.
Tuuri plays in any number of different bands including the young Bowman Trio, and he also has his own quartet.
Frederik Emil Bülow is the Danish component in the group, and he has two albums of his own with the interestingly named Bangin' Bülows Nice Jazz Quartet – a group of friends all from the same village. He composed most of the tracks on this album, and tellingly his website says “My specialisation is odd meters”.
The music is indeed a clever combination of complex rhythmic patterns, intelligent improvisations and simple lyrical themes. Compositions by drummers can sometimes be too clever rhythmically and too drum-heavy, but that's not the case here, this is a real trio of equals. In fact the drums tend to shuffle away in the background providing propulsion and support rather than pushing themselves forward.
There are tracks where the bass takes the lead, with Sauros chipping in with the melody and the drums in the background. Only on the final track do we get a drum solo and then it's delightfully delicate and understated.
The opening track Ninth Row of the Fifth Floor has already been released as a single. It starts with a simple melody in two different tempos over a walking bass with drums in the background. The bass gives the track a slight film noir feel. Sauros takes a fine solo with the drums providing the propulsion.
Overall this is an interesting and absorbing debut album, and I'm sure we'll be hearing more of them in the future.
Reviewed by Peter Slavid
