JAKOB BRO / ARVE HENREIKSEN / JORGE ROSSY - Uma Elmo
ECM 352 8227
Jakob Bro (guitar); Arve Henriksen (trumpet, piccolo trumpet); Jorge Rossy (drums)
Recorded August/September 2020
There is something special that happens when Jakob Bro adds another frontline instrument to his line up. The trumpet and flugelhorn of Palle Mikkelborg introduced a fresh aspect to Bro's music under his own name for ECM, and he has done so again with this new recording featuring Arve Henrikson.
For Uma Elmo, the guitarist has also dispensed with double bass, and instead focussed on the tonal and sonic palette that can be explored between brass, skins and strings along with the electronic enhancement of pedals, while still maintaining that balance and sense of freedom that a trio seems to bring with it.
In doing so, Bro seems to have both opened up the music and also found a way to focus the music with a quiet intensity that means that the music is very much in the moment. This centres the music, and if at first the listener is inclined to drift in and out of the music, after a while you will quickly find that you are more in than out as the trio draw you into their shapeshifting sound world.
The album opens with a lengthy composition, 'Reconstructing A Dream', that very quickly moves from quiet introspection to a more animated plane that disturbs the sleep gently at first before the inevitable climax bring you fully awake. Equally as good is the superb ballad ,'To Stanko' in a beautiful tribute to the great Polish trumpeter. There is a poignancy and heartfelt manner to the piece that is not in awe but in thanks to Stanko, and this reflective aspect to the trio's work is again heard to wonderful effect on the lovely 'Morning Song', which contains some of the best playing of the set.
There are many delights throughout, and a few surprises too. Henriksen's delicate trumpet and piccolo trumpet playing is give full rein, from the pure sound of the Japanese shakuhachi flute to sounds of a bass clarinet heard on 'Housework' the trumpeter conjures a variety of colours and textures from his instruments. Coupled with Bro's shifting electronic backdrop, and light toned single lines that offer a counterpoint to the Henriksen's trumpet explorations.
Integral to the music, however, is the often subtle but ever present of Jorge Rossy at the drums. His quiet shading brings a depth to the music even if he does not overtly revert to a rhythmic role at any point in proceedings. His playing on 'Music For Black Pigeons' is central to the piece; and elsewhere he is never less than unobtrusively excellent.
Bro's music has not always been the easiest to embrace and inhabit, but with Uma Elmo he has perhaps found the perfect blend of composition and improvisation, and the musical companions to take his concept to the next level. It is even more remarkable when one remembers that the first time that the three musicians had played together was when they met in the recording studio to play the music heard here.
Reviewed by Nick Lea
ECM 352 8227
Jakob Bro (guitar); Arve Henriksen (trumpet, piccolo trumpet); Jorge Rossy (drums)
Recorded August/September 2020
There is something special that happens when Jakob Bro adds another frontline instrument to his line up. The trumpet and flugelhorn of Palle Mikkelborg introduced a fresh aspect to Bro's music under his own name for ECM, and he has done so again with this new recording featuring Arve Henrikson.
For Uma Elmo, the guitarist has also dispensed with double bass, and instead focussed on the tonal and sonic palette that can be explored between brass, skins and strings along with the electronic enhancement of pedals, while still maintaining that balance and sense of freedom that a trio seems to bring with it.
In doing so, Bro seems to have both opened up the music and also found a way to focus the music with a quiet intensity that means that the music is very much in the moment. This centres the music, and if at first the listener is inclined to drift in and out of the music, after a while you will quickly find that you are more in than out as the trio draw you into their shapeshifting sound world.
The album opens with a lengthy composition, 'Reconstructing A Dream', that very quickly moves from quiet introspection to a more animated plane that disturbs the sleep gently at first before the inevitable climax bring you fully awake. Equally as good is the superb ballad ,'To Stanko' in a beautiful tribute to the great Polish trumpeter. There is a poignancy and heartfelt manner to the piece that is not in awe but in thanks to Stanko, and this reflective aspect to the trio's work is again heard to wonderful effect on the lovely 'Morning Song', which contains some of the best playing of the set.
There are many delights throughout, and a few surprises too. Henriksen's delicate trumpet and piccolo trumpet playing is give full rein, from the pure sound of the Japanese shakuhachi flute to sounds of a bass clarinet heard on 'Housework' the trumpeter conjures a variety of colours and textures from his instruments. Coupled with Bro's shifting electronic backdrop, and light toned single lines that offer a counterpoint to the Henriksen's trumpet explorations.
Integral to the music, however, is the often subtle but ever present of Jorge Rossy at the drums. His quiet shading brings a depth to the music even if he does not overtly revert to a rhythmic role at any point in proceedings. His playing on 'Music For Black Pigeons' is central to the piece; and elsewhere he is never less than unobtrusively excellent.
Bro's music has not always been the easiest to embrace and inhabit, but with Uma Elmo he has perhaps found the perfect blend of composition and improvisation, and the musical companions to take his concept to the next level. It is even more remarkable when one remembers that the first time that the three musicians had played together was when they met in the recording studio to play the music heard here.
Reviewed by Nick Lea
