#thomas stronen

[dustedmagazine]

John Surman — Words Unspoken (ECM)

To progress from being an adequate or good soloist toward the coveted realms of greatness involves increasing narrative subtlety. Telling a story is fine, but moving from phrase to phrase carrying forward those minute details in which worlds are distilled is quite another program. Then, there are the felicities of ensemble playing. While by no means mutually exclusive, a great soloist is often not a great ensemble player and vice versa. John Surman does both, wonderfully and in a unique voice; Words Unspoken, his new quartet album, is the proof that makes the pudding well worth sampling.

Surman’s bassless quartet includes guitarist Rob Luft, vibraphonist Rob Waring and drummer Thomas Stronen. Even on the most up-tempo tunes, the rhythm section provides that gorgeously airy sound for which ECM has become lauded and stereotyped. In this context, given the fact that each player transcends instrumental preconceptions through a continually morphing ensemble approach against which Surman is free to emote. It can be difficult to judge whether guitar or vibes, or both, buttress and swirl around Surman’s mellifluous baritone on the title track. Try the windy swells and crystalline curves at 2:05 to experience the full-blown ambiguity. By way of complete and utterly joyful contrast, sample “Onich Ceilidh,” where, at 4:49, Surman swaps out his soprano saxophone and provides a bassline via continuously shifting bass clarinet articulations as Waring and Luft skip along in rippling counterpoint with Stronen expressing foundational alacrity. Surman’s compositional lines support this integrated approach; “Belay That” slides along in sinewy seconds and more forceful open intervals, saxophone and guitar shimmering against each other in timbral accord as Stronen shows himself to be a wonderfully facile time drummer, his touch as light as it is precise.

Indeed, like time and temporal suspension, even constructing these solo and group boundaries borders on falsehood. As with the 1970-75 Miles Davis aggregates, this quartet’s concept of soloing is amoebic, the boundaries of accompaniment blurred at so many strategic points. If Waring’s repetitive riffs opening “Pebble Dance” do not constitute a solo, then neither does Stronen’s timbrally rich rhythmic “melodies” anticipating Luff’s simpatico stealth groove at 1:01. Even that vamp is both rhythmic and melodic, open harmonies in play as they so often are throughout this collection of Surman compositions.

Then, there is Surman’s soloing, a perfect foil to the accented rhythms, modal areas and scalar melodicism of his compositions. Dig the way he slides so gently but with such purpose up to the two notes at 2:34 of “Flower in Aspic” or builds tiered crescendos on the same pitch 3:52 into “Bitter Aloe,” his clarinet a fountain of pitched nuance and color. Maybe best of all is the glissando 2:19 into “Pebble Dance.” Surman’s soprano slides gracefully, effortlessly, up to a note that falls just between the cracks, a blue note transmogrified, a pitch existing within and just beyond itself, inhabiting two cognitive spaces simultaneously, like his music does. As always, Surman is at home in any genre or style he chooses. Every track is a landscape in flux, and every album a series of them. For nearly six decades, Surman’s restless explorations have bolstered and defied genre categorization, but beauty persists. Beauty of tone, of timbre, of compositional conception and ensemble deployment, often an inward and reflective beauty, have been mainstays of Surman’ daunting and, happily, still growing and consistently superb discography. Much of it lives in the ECM catalog and may its entries multiply!

Marc Medwin

[donospl]

Yelena Eckemoff “Nocturnal Animals”

Yelena Eckemoff “Nocturnal Animals”

L&H Production, 2020

Albumy osnute inspiracją wokół konkretnego tematu, są jednym ze znaków rozpoznawczych pianistki Yeleny Eckemoff. Pisaliśmy o jej duetowym albumie z Manu Katche wydanym w ubiegłym roku [http://bit.ly/2MXnEwe]. Początek roku 2020  przyniósł album nagrany tym razem w kwartecie.

Patrząc na współpracowników Yeleny Eckemoff z kolejnych płyt, stworzyć można imponujący poczet …

[phroyd]

A Small Taste of one of the Best Jazz Recordings to come out in 2015!

Phroyd

[camango]

18.9.30

FOOD - Quiet Inlet

ついにゲット！嬉涙

[riffsstrides]

Thomas Stronen: Lucus

Thomas Strønen Time Is A Blind Guide Lucus

Ayumi Tanaka: piano Håkon Aase: violin Lucy Railton: violoncello Ole Morten Vågan: double bass Thomas Strønen: drums, percussion

Norwegian drummer/composer Thomas Strønen presents a revised edition of his acoustic collective Time Is A Blind Guide, now trimmed to quintet size, and with a new pianist in Wakayama-born Ayumi Tanaka. Tanaka has spoken of seeking associative connections between Japan and Norway in her improvising, a tendency Strønen seems to be encouraging with his space-conscious writing for the ensemble, letting in more light. As on the group’s eponymously-titled and critically-lauded debut album there are excellent contributions from the string players – the quintet effectively contains both a string trio and a piano trio – and Manfred Eicher’s production brings out all the fine detail in the grain of the collective sound and the halo of its overtones, captured in the famously-responsive acoustic of Lugano’s Auditorio Stelio Molo in March 2017.

[jazzsotd]

51. Thomas Stronen - “Release” from “Lucus” (2018) on ECM Records

[burlveneer-music]

Reflections In Cosmo - Ironhorse (RareNoise Records)

The fire and fury of ‘60s free jazz and the tumult of electronic rock-tinged experimental music is on full display on this new powerhouse offering from four cutting edge Oslo-based musicians collectively known as Reflection in Cosmo. With Kjetil Moster on saxes, Hans Magnus Ryan on guitar, Stale Storlokken on keyboards and Thomas Stronen on drums, these four kindred spirits strike a tumultuous accord on their self-titled debut on RareNoiseRecords, which represents Moster’s followup on RareNoise to his edgy avant-jazz collaboration in 2014 with the Hungarian power trio Ju. At times recalling the ferocious intensity of the late ‘80s free jazz quartet Last Exit (Peter Brotzman, Sonny Sharrock, Bill Lawell, Ronald Shannon Jackson), this potent Norwegian outfit pushes the envelope with Moster’s blowtorch intensity on baritone and tenor saxes, Ryan’s wailing electric guitar work, Storlokken’s crunchy, distortion-laced keyboards and Stronen’s thunderous drumming.

[jazzworldquest-blog]

NORWAY: Thomas Stronen's - LUCUS- Time Is A Blind Guide(ECM 2018)

Norwegian drummer/composer Thomas Strønen presents a revised edition of his acoustic collective Time Is A Blind Guide, now trimmed to quintet size, and with a new pianist in Wakayama-born Ayumi Tanaka. Tanaka has spoken of seeking associative connections between Japan and Norway in her improvising, a tendency Strønen seems to be encouraging with his space-conscious writing for the ensemble, letting in more light. As on the group’s eponymously-titled and critically-lauded debut album there are excellent contributions from the string players – the quintet effectively contains both a string trio and a piano trio – and Manfred Eicher’s production brings out all the fine detail in the grain of the collective sound and the halo of its overtones, captured in the famously-responsive acoustic of Lugano’s Auditorio Stelio Molo RSI in March 2017.

via Blogger https://ift.tt/2qvDeUN

[diyeipetea]

Mats Eilertsen Trio (2º Alternatilla Jazz in Mallorca. 2017-12-05) [Galería fotográfica]

2º Alternatilla Jazz in Mallorca

Fecha: Martes, 05 de diciembre de 2017. 20:30h.

Lugar: Teatre Xesc Forteza. Palma de Mallorca

Grupo: Mats Eilertsen Trio Mats Eilertsen: contrabajo Harmen Fraanje: piano Thomas Stronen: batería

Tomajazz: © José Luis Luna Rocafort, 2017

[musicazca]

Best Sellers in Avant-Garde & Free Jazz #9: Pohlitz ~ Thomas Stronen https://t.co/HWWG9Jm65f #Jazz https://t.co/1Yq6gZr7to

Best Sellers in Avant-Garde & Free Jazz #9: Pohlitz ~ Thomas Stronen https://t.co/HWWG9Jm65f #Jazz pic.twitter.com/1Yq6gZr7to

— MusicAzCA.bot (@MusicAzCA) August 20, 2017

via Twitter https://twitter.com/MusicAzCA August 20, 2017 at 06:56AM

[recordedmessages]

Food: Khymos (from the album Molecular Gastronomy)

Review

[jazzworldquest-blog]

NORWAY: Thomas Stronen's Time Is A Blind Guide-Lucus(2018)

Norwegian drummer/composer Thomas Strønen presents a revised edition of his acoustic collective Time Is A Blind Guide, now trimmed to quintet size, and with a new pianist in Wakayama-born Ayumi Tanaka. Tanaka has spoken of seeking associative connections between Japan and Norway in her improvising, a tendency Strønen seems to be encouraging with his space-conscious writing for the ensemble, letting in more light. As on the group’s eponymously-titled and critically-lauded debut album there are excellent contributions from the string players – the quintet effectively contains both a string trio and a piano trio – and Manfred Eicher’s production brings out all the fine detail in the grain of the collective sound and the halo of its overtones, captured in the famously-responsive acoustic of Lugano’s Auditorio Stelio Molo RSI in March 2017.

via Blogger http://ift.tt/2CiBXE3