TOIVO QUINTET - View
Losen: LOS243-2
Arne Tolvo Fjose Sandberg: bass; Aksel Ovreas Roed: saxophone; Andreas Hesselberg Hatzikiriakidis: trumpet; Mathias Marstrander: guitar, pedal steel; Sigurd Steinkopf: drums.
Recorded September 2018 by Cem Arapkirlioglu at Studio A, The Grieg Academy, Bergen
I laughed out loud at the opening sentence of Jan Tore Skramesto’s liner notes for this CD: “Surviving in jazz is quite simple: learn the tradition, poke it in the eye, and then run as fast as you can.” For this young quintet, the ‘tradition’ is that period of the 1960s when Hard Bop was muscling onto the scene. Certainly in Sandberg’s assured bass lines and Steinkopf’s rattling percussion, you get a sense of players immersed in that particular milieu. But Sandberg’s compostions are not mere pastiches of a bygone musical style. For each section of a tune when the band stretch out in rambunctious bop, there is a contrasting section that shimmers in gentle collective improvisation (in the way that ‘Kiev’, track 6, opens or the middle eight in ‘BG0, track 3) or, particularly when Marstrander steps forward, boasts rollicking solos that sit somewhere between no-wave and prog rock. Neatly, the arrangements allow the quintet to step in and out of these various musical styles to create a sound that is very much their own. I like the way that ‘2 10’ (track 5) begins with a loping bass line that segues into a trumpet and sax phrase that could have come direct from the ‘60s before the drums double-step and the fuzz drenched guitar plays a solo from that could have come from a ‘70s tv cop show. I guess one of the benefits of youth is that anything from before you were born is ‘old’ and of equal worth to explore and plunder. Across the tunes, so many bits and pieces of tradition get poked in the eye – but rather than let them run away, here is a band that you’ll want to want to chase after and see what havoc they wreak next.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
Losen: LOS243-2
Arne Tolvo Fjose Sandberg: bass; Aksel Ovreas Roed: saxophone; Andreas Hesselberg Hatzikiriakidis: trumpet; Mathias Marstrander: guitar, pedal steel; Sigurd Steinkopf: drums.
Recorded September 2018 by Cem Arapkirlioglu at Studio A, The Grieg Academy, Bergen
I laughed out loud at the opening sentence of Jan Tore Skramesto’s liner notes for this CD: “Surviving in jazz is quite simple: learn the tradition, poke it in the eye, and then run as fast as you can.” For this young quintet, the ‘tradition’ is that period of the 1960s when Hard Bop was muscling onto the scene. Certainly in Sandberg’s assured bass lines and Steinkopf’s rattling percussion, you get a sense of players immersed in that particular milieu. But Sandberg’s compostions are not mere pastiches of a bygone musical style. For each section of a tune when the band stretch out in rambunctious bop, there is a contrasting section that shimmers in gentle collective improvisation (in the way that ‘Kiev’, track 6, opens or the middle eight in ‘BG0, track 3) or, particularly when Marstrander steps forward, boasts rollicking solos that sit somewhere between no-wave and prog rock. Neatly, the arrangements allow the quintet to step in and out of these various musical styles to create a sound that is very much their own. I like the way that ‘2 10’ (track 5) begins with a loping bass line that segues into a trumpet and sax phrase that could have come direct from the ‘60s before the drums double-step and the fuzz drenched guitar plays a solo from that could have come from a ‘70s tv cop show. I guess one of the benefits of youth is that anything from before you were born is ‘old’ and of equal worth to explore and plunder. Across the tunes, so many bits and pieces of tradition get poked in the eye – but rather than let them run away, here is a band that you’ll want to want to chase after and see what havoc they wreak next.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
