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Office Essentials - The Core |
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From the opening track, Bolero,
it is clear that The Core is a no-nonsense jazz band, hell-bent on
making the kind of music they not only like to play, but like to listen
to. With a strong melodic base, Møster pushes his sax to the sonic
limits, sustaining a loose and free statement of the melody in view,
even when it is far beyond what could reasonably be called "tenor".
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On Brooklyn Serenade,
there is a promise of bright lights, fast cars and an iconic skyline: a
promise that Slettevoll's urbane playing delivers, alongside Møster's
sax, alternating between anguish and joy over the solid rhythm work of
Raknes and Aalberg.
Song for Eive comes in swinging, not so much like jazz, but like
a prize fighter, fast-shuffling his feet, jabbing and strutting. Møster
and Slettevoll provide the melodic solos that overlay an unstoppable
rhythmic engine.
Free-Bird lives up to its name, soaring and diving, swooping and
sweeping, allowing itself to rise and fall on the currents that ebb and
flow beneath its wings.
The Shadow slinks through the darkness like an Eastern assassin
in a Manhattan night, waiting for the right moment to strike. Raknes's
solo grooves out into the light, undazzled or amazed, instead babbling
fluently, telling us stories of what is yet to come.
New Thing cuts straight into an unapologetic explanation of
itself before breaking away to tell us what it wants to become: and
sure enough it transforms before us, Møster and Slettevoll once again
taking the lead, but this time it's Aalberg's show, drumming as though
tomorrow won't come if he stops even for a second.
Office Essentials is an album that pushes its way through your psyche,
yet retains a freshness, and simultaneously, it contains a maturity
derived from experience coupled with a headstrong will to create
greatness derived from an innocence that has no understanding of
"can't". Essential? It certainly is.
Read John Kelman's Review on All About Jazz |
