As the jazz trio sector expands relentlessly, it is nothing short of a phenomenon how quality, diversity and variety are being maintained and even increased. The time of EST, Brad Mehldau, Bad Plus sound-alike clones (if they ever existed at all) is over and we’re now in a rich verdant meadow that has matured – the great piano trio resurgence of the early 2000s has grown up and taken root – the genre is well and truly rocking day in and day out.
Take Scandinavia. Once easily tarred with the glacial ECM brush it now boasts a diversity of musicians on a wide spectrum of piano styles. In this slipstream along comes newcomer Magnus Hjorth with a great first album Old New Borrowed Blue that makes no excuses for its wide, even mainstream, appeal. But that would be laying on more tar as this is a new release to be reckoned with. This Swede is standing close to the cooker and he doesn’t care what melts.
Basically I have to come clean – yes my preference is for timeless majestic trios that gently caress the soul but I’m also partial to the funk monkeys who have the chops, the tempos and the momentum to rock up a storm and doff a respectful cap to anyone on the jazz piano spectrum from Scott Joplin onwards.
The trio’s opener Qloose is one such track – unbridled fun and with chops to spare it reminds me of an Eric Legnini stomper. Ballroom Steps mixes nostalgia with a poppy theme that is pure taste and whimsy. Let’s Face The Music and Dance finds the trio playing with time at extreme tempo that seems to be attached to a rubber band they stretch and release at will. I love the playfulness and fun the band seem to be having in these complex and technically difficult arrangements. The medium muscular stroll through a re-harmonised Stompin’ At the Savoy is yet more evidence that this new band aren’t afraid to play standards when it might be more hip to play some abstract originals. Goodness, Hjorth isn’t even afraid to play stride. Hjorth can sound like McCoy Tyner at times like on Barber Rhett and then skip between him and Earl Hines like on Good Friday. Sunday Service is a gentle gospel infused piece with Ellingtonian overtones in the twists and turns of the harmony. The closer, an up tempo, Madhouse sounds as fleet fingered as the brace of McCoy Tyner trios albums on Impulse recorded in the early 1960s. Lovely brushwork here by Snorre Kirk and fat toned rapid tempo bass work by the excellent Petter Eldh on bass. We’re left with the feeling that the trio aren’t here to pander but they aren’t afraid to spread the jam over a range of styles either. Bravo.
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