2017

Digipack.<br/><br/>"Jag låter min musik frodas i den nordiska melankolins tonspråk. Där vill jag varsamt förvalta arvet efter några av de mest älskade namnen inom svensk jazz och visa. Musiken hedrar en tradition men tar den in i en samtid med de infallsvinklar en 90-talist upptäcker i sig själv och andra."<br/>Amanda Ginsburg<br/><br/>"Albumdebuterande sångerskan Amanda Ginsburg har redan låtit tala om sig; i våras släppte hon en singel, i höstas ännu en, och till på köpet nominerades hon till P2:s Guldkatten i kategorin Årets nykomling. <br/>Fullängdaren "Jag har funderat på en sak", som innefattar båda singlarna, rör sig mellan jazz och visa, med texter på svenska. Det är musik som vinner mycket på just språket, men tilltalet är också musikaliskt okonstlat och direkt. Andra har gått före i samma spår - Sarah Riedel, till exempel. Men Ginsburg har sin egen timbre och en närhet till sin musik och sina texter som känns distinkt personlig. En viss poppighet smyger sig osökt på, samtidigt som musiken ekar av samma gammelsvenska traditioner som Jan Johansson och andra utvecklade på 60-talet".<br/><br/>- Johannes Cornell - DN

Parks Aaron/Ben Street/Billy Hart: Find the way [CD]

British pianist Django Bates returns to ECM with one of his very finest constellations, the trio Belovèd, with Swedish bassist Petter Eldh and Danish drummer Peter Bruun, and an aptly named album, "The Study of Touch". All three musicians are highly individual players, subtly challenging the conventions of the jazz piano trio. The group came together a decade ago when Bates was teaching at Copenhagen's Rhythmic Music Conservatory. The shared work has included inspired reconstructions of pieces associated with Charlie Parker - a formative influence for both Bates and bassist Eldh - and in this new album, Parker's tune "Passport" is set amid Django originals, and played with respect, contemporary sensibility and joy. Some of Django's own tunes here - such as "Senza Bitterness", "Sadness All The Way Down" and "We Are Not Lost, We Are Simply Finding Our Way" have become core pieces in Belovèd's repertoire, continually remodeled by this trio of improvisers. Bates' composing and arranging skills are much in evidence, along with his freewheeling, free-flowing virtuosic melodic sense. The terse, percussive edge of Petter Eldh's bass provides momentum and drummer Peter Bruun details the music with an almost painterly touch. In the crowded world of the piano trio, Belovèd has developed a sound all its own. "The Study of Touch" was recorded at Oslo's Rainbow Studio in June 2016, and produced by Manfred Eicher.

For his third ECM release as a leader, Chris Potter presents a new acoustic quartet that naturally blends melodic rhapsody with rhythmic muscle. The group includes superlative musicians well known to followers of ECM's many recordings from New York over the past decade: keyboardist David Virelles, bassist Joe Martin and drummer Marcus Gilmore, who each shine in addition to the leader on multiple horns. The Dreamer Is the Dream features Potter on tenor saxophone - the instrument that has made him one of the most admired players of his generation - in the striking opener "Heart in Hand" and such album highlights as "Yasodhara," as well as on soprano sax ("Memory and Desire") and bass clarinet (the title track). Potter is an artist who "employs his considerable technique in service of music rather than spectacle," says The New Yorker, and his composing develops in texture and atmosphere with every album.

One Father, One Son, Two Guitars<br/><br/>"He plays the guitar like he was born with it already in his hands" was how John McLaughlin once praised Ulf Wakenius. What is true for the father might be even more true for Ulf's guitarist son Eric, who probably was quite literally born with one..<br/><br/>"Eric really is a blessing", says Ulf Wakenius. "We have shared many concerts all over the world and it has always been a pure joy!" So the time is clearly right to document this family saga: "Father And Son" is a virtuoso conversation in the art of contemporary jazz guitar. This duo can launch into swing mode, or strut out towards rock, they are capable of being both lyrical and percussively extrovert, they can dream ballads or go at breakneck speed. And whether they are telling tales of exotic lands or contemplating their native Sweden, the pair - with their instinct for atmosphere, their sensitivity to acoustics and balance - make soul-stirring, affecting and compelling music, in which the listener can detect the closeness of their connection to each other.<br/><br/>The musical backgrounds of father and son are very different. Ulf Wakenius had ten years as a member of the Oscar Peterson Quartet and also worked with the two legends of the bass, Ray Brown and Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen. He is known for his collaborations with great jazz figures such as Pat Metheny, Michael Brecker and Michel Legrand, and of course for his work with the singer Youn Sun Nah. He is not just one of the most busy and in-demand players, but also the most creative jazz guitarists of our era. His son Eric, by contrast was born in 1988 and surrounded as a teenager by the rock and pop music of the nineties. After that, he spent a lot of time in Los Angeles, where he picked up many different stylistic directions from that city's musical melting pot. "He has played a lot of electric guitar", explains Wakenius, "but - like me - he has fallen in love with the acoustic guitar and its many possibilities."

A year after his impressionistic, critically-lauded ECM debut "Into The Silence", trumpeter Avishai Cohen's "Cross My Palm With Silver" introduces a programme of new pieces which put the focus on the ensemble, on teamwork, with a quartet of the highest calibre. The adroit, almost telepathic interplay among the musicians allows Avishai Cohen to soar, making it clear why he is one of the most talked-about jazz musicians on the contemporary scene. "All of these people together are my dream team", says the charismatic trumpeter of fellow players Yonathan Avishai, Barak Mori and Nasheet Waits, who share his sense for daring improvisation and his feeling for structure. "I feel we're in a perfect place with the balance. It's open and there's so much room for the improvisation to take the music any place we can. At the same time the composition is very specific and the vibe is very direct and thought about." As with "Into The Silence", "Cross My Palm With Silver" was produced by Manfred Eicher at Studios La Buissonne in the south of France. It is issued on the eve of a major European tour, with concerts in France, Italy, Spain, Luxembourg, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands.

Tropiques är Goran Kajfes nya grupp. En kvartett med lika delar jazz och minimalism som leker med vårt tidsbegrepp och försätter oss i musikalisk hypnos. Musiker förutom Goran är Johan Berthling, klaviaturgeniet Alexander Zethson och Johan Holmegard (Dungen). Skivan är inspelad i legendariska Atlantis-studion och mixad av Andreas Werliin (Fire!, Tonbruket).