{"id":8543,"date":"2017-08-10T20:41:51","date_gmt":"2017-08-11T03:41:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/?p=8543"},"modified":"2017-08-11T23:30:12","modified_gmt":"2017-08-12T06:30:12","slug":"ystad-2017-catching-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2017\/08\/ystad-2017-catching-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Ystad 2017: Catching Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Catching up is a noble ambition, but the quantity of music at the Ystad Sweden Jazz Festival and the tight scheduling make it all but impossible to be comprehensive. My notebook is overflowing with impressions. Here are brief reports on a few performances.<\/p>\n

The festival\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s opening concert was by the New York band The Rad Trads, whose blend of traditional, jazz, rock and folk music accounts for their name. They enlivened the ancient courtyard of Per Helsas G\u00c3\u00a5rd for an hour and a half before they led the festival\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s celebratory opening parade through Ystad\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s streets. In the photo below you see The Rad Trads. Directly below the upraised bell of Michael Fatum\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s trumpet is Japanese alto saxophonist Yosuke Sato.<\/p>\n

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A couple of days later at Per Helsas G\u00c3\u00a5rd, the energetic Sato co-led a group with guitarist Jacob Fischer, rested from his Tuesday concert with Hans Beckenroth at the Klosterkyrkan. From the aural evidence, Sato\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s playing seems to have been \"\"influenced equally by Cannonball Adderley and Phil Woods. He and Fischer opened with Adderley\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Wabash,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d then burned through several choruses of Sonny Rollins\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Airegin,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d a classic from Rollins\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 tenure with Miles Davis in the 1950s. It must be tempting for a saxophonist with Sato\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s technique to fully use it . He may have loaded at least one virtuosic run too many into his choruses on Johnny Mandel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Emily,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d but apart from that it was a superb solo, as was the following one by Danish pianist Zier Romme Larson. The Fischer-Sato group took”\u00a0 the 1920 Al Jolson hit “Avalon” fast, Charlie Parker’s “Confirmation” faster than fast. The speedier tempos had the unexpected effect of encouraging Sato, pianist Larson and Fischer to introduce more space into their solos, a welcome development.<\/p>\n

Angels At The Museum<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Swedish bassist David Carlsson presented his David\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Angels at the Konstmuseum in downtown Ystad. The angels were vocalist Sofie Norling, pianist Maggi Olin, the Danish drummer Michala \u00c3\u02dcstergaard-Nielsen and as featured guest artist, Canadian trumpeter Ingrid Jensen.<\/p>\n

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A leader in her own right and often a member of Maria Schneider\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s New York big band, Jensen was compelling with and without the electronic augmentation that she has made a specialty. Her use of loop effects and echo controlled by a foot pedal helped give Carlsson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s minor-key \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Now That It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Over\u00e2\u20ac\u009d an eerie cast reminiscent of Middle Eastern music. She was all over the full range of the trumpet, often squeezing out sequences of notes in the extreme upper register. Carlsson is, to say the least, an active player.”\u00a0 His lines on the electric bass inflect the band\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s work with jazz-rock undercurrents.<\/p>\n

In a piece that Carlsson said was about \u00e2\u20ac\u0153getting rid of stuff in your life,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Jensen and Norling performed voice-trumpet unison passages and Norling displayed her extremely personal way of scat singing. In her improvisation, Jensen quoted the title phrase of John Coltrane\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153A Love Supreme,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d a fitting reference in this 50th anniversary year of the saxophone master\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s death. Among the surprises delivered by David\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Angels was Jensen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s use of her trumpet as a percussion instrument. She lightly pounded the mouthpiece with the palm of her hand as she held the horn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bell to a microphone. It created the desired popping sound, but\u00e2\u20ac\u201da warning to trumpet players\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthe action may cause you to cringe and wonder if she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s jamming the mouthpiece irretreivably into the horn. There is no video of the Ystad concert, but in a performance captured earlier at the Gustav Adolfs Church in Helsingborg you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll get a sense of Norling\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s flexible vocalizing, a bit of Jensen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s trumpet work including the mouthpiece whacking, ”\u00a0and the style of Carlsson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s band.”\u00a0 The piece is called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m Not Sorry At All.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

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