The
Year of the Boar introduces the powerhouse
bassist's new band, a five-piece that reflects his adopted home in the American
prairie (he's lived in Chicago since late 2006) as well as his deep roots in
the bustling Norwegian jazz scene. The
result is nothing short of a full marshaling of trans-Atlantic creative music
forces, a roundhouse punch in the face of complacent listening.
Of course, parallels between the improvised
music communities in Chicago and Oslo have been made frequently, fueling
repeated exchanges between the metropoles.
Top pan-Scandanavian ensembles like Atomic and The Thing, both of which
feature Flaten on bass, have toured the U.S. regularly over the last
half-decade, prying open the door to a fruitful musical give-and-take. This group is the next chapter in this
ongoing saga.
The quintet includes three of Chicago's
brightest, most exciting improvisers.
Guitarist Jeff Parker is one of the kingpins of the scene, traversing
jazz, rock, experimental, dub, electronic, and improvised music worlds with
astonishing grace. Imbued with a
magnetic musicality and equipped with massive creative intellect, Parker's
incisive guitar spurs Tortoise and Ken Vandermark's (((Powerhouse Sound))) with
equal surety. Another Vandermark
associate, saxophonist Dave Rempis, is also a central figure in Chicago, both
as a bandleader/improvisor and as a presenter/promoter. His baritone and alto are fluid and fiery,
an elemental force. The youngest
Chicagoan in the fivesome is drummer Frank Rosaly, a glorious partner for
Flaten who integrates the full range of percussion possibilities, from hardcore
swing to pneumatic rock to non-metrical freeplay. From Norway, to complete the ensemble, Flaten invited violinist
Ola Kvernberg, an adept and versatile voice and the perfect front-line
complement to Rempis and Parker.
The quintet's debut CD feels natural in
Chicago, with a pugilistic rock element (listen to Parker's white-hot guitar
soloing and the band's raucous ostinati riffing) and sectional, episodic
compositions. But as with any important
record, it adds something distinctly personal and original to the mix, which
might be summarized by placing the band in a great lineage of Norwegian
progressive jazz. With a constructive
approach to the integration of fusion charts and post-Miles electric collage,
significant points on that line include Jan Garbarek's classic, sometimes unfairly
neglected early bands with guitarist Terje Rypdal, which perhaps set the
aesthetic table for Flaten's ensemble, and the George Russell ensembles out of
which Garbarek's group emerged, as well as the less well-known trio led by
pianist Svein Finnerud.
In fact, Flaten makes his awareness of this
tradition clear at the end of the disc, utilizing a line by Finnerud's bassist
(and Flaten's good friend), Bjørnar Andresen in the composition "George," which
he dedicates to Russell. Other pieces
have appeared in very different versions elsewhere, showing how Flaten likes to
rework and reinterpret material.
Indeed, the blazing opener, "Maxwell's Silver Demon," also appeared as
the first track on Flaten's Jazzland release Quintet, but the bassist was confident that the differences in the
two versions would be evident, maybe even instructive. From one of the first trips to Chicago,
Flaten's piece "Green Wood" appeared on the 2003 Okka Disk release Nuclear Assemblyhall, performed by the
combined forces of Atomic and School Days.
Here, on a rolling groove that builds to a volcanic explosion, Rosaly
shows off his polyrhythmic imagination.
Dedications to Flaten's parents constitute
two tracks. "Praying," a track that has
appeared on an early Atomic release (Feet
Music) and uncredited on Zim Nqguana's Ingoma,
a South African CD, is a dedication to Flaten's father, who died when the
bassist was 20. "Ceremony," a new piece with a beautiful pocket and Art
Ensemble-like rhythmic breakdowns, dedicated to Flaten's mother (soon to be
revisited on a new AtomicSchooldays release), was debuted on the tour for The Year of the Boar, during which
Flaten played in his home village, Oppdal, for the first time since leaving in
1988. His 77-year-old mom was in the
first row. At the end of the concert,
one of the 500 in attendance, an old farmer who had never heard live jazz, said
to Ingebrigt: "Man, this music went
straight to my guts."
No wonder.
It takes little expertise to feel the strength and sensitivity of the
Ingebrigt Haker Flaten Quintet. Here
they are in the city that works, helping build a new Chicago. Welcome!
John Corbett,
Chicago, Dec 2007
Jazzlander
About the author:
Born in the heart of Jazzland at an early age, the Jazzlander found words within music and music within words. Raised by his parents in a small village, they eventually would lower him in a big city. It was there that his unique gifts were recognised, and he was imprisoned within the confines of the Jazzland website. It is here that he unleashes his views of music, and calls on those with the ability to hear to listen.
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