Journalist Henning Bolte reviewed the whole Europe Jazz Network showcase weekend in Trondheim, Norway in September 12nd - 15th. As a part of the article he also dug into the Young Nordic Jazz Comets showcase night.
European Jazz Network General Assembly 2013
Text by Henning Bolte, All About Jazz
www.allaboutjazz.com
First concert night: all Scandinavian
The first night at Dokkhuset, packed with a young local audience, presented an all Scandinavian program entitled "Young Nordic Jazz Comets" (YNJC). It offered surprising music by young musicians from Zweden, Faroe Islands, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Denmark (only Greenland missing!). The YNJC event started in 2000. Through the years it changed from an annual competition to a program with full (showcasing) concerts. It operates in a similar spirit as Dublin's new Pan-European 12 Points festival.
Six bands performed: Casey Moir Band from Sweden, Bárdur Reinert Poulsen Kvartet from Faroe Islands, Kadi Quartet from Finland, Skarkali Trio from Iceland, Pixel from Norway and Crunch House from Denmark—four quartets, the (classical) piano-trio from Iceland and the Crunch House duo (drums, hammond B3) from Denmark. Two of the quartets had a fronting female vocalist (Casey Moir and Kadi Vija). In Pixel, Ellen Andrea Wang combined her double bass playing with singing.
Casey Moir played a sophisticated set with extreme leaps and wild rides, skillfully performed. Their music showed lots of good ideas but was a bit overloaded in the workout. Singer Moir at times was acting weird instead of giving way to the feeling of real madness. Bassist Poulsen's group (with Kjetil André Mulchid as impressive alto- saxophonist) played with a lot of verve, urgency and heat. It finished with an infectious kind of Faroe lambada. Poulsen, still studying in Trondheim, hopefully will be the first director of a jazzfestival on the far remote islands. Kadi Vija, a selfconscious singer with a firm throat, led her band through an energetic and powerful set. She dared to pause, drop silences and increased tension and dynamics. The Icelandic piano-trio Skarkali (Ingi Bjarni, p, Valdimar Olgeirsson, b, Óskar Kjatansson, dr) had to face maybe the biggest challenge by adopting this classical format. Apparently the threesome chose to work its way through in a classical way. It reached a respectable level with moments of beautiful melodicism and has still a way to go.
Pixel was the most agile and dynamically balanced group. With impressive and appealing drive the four young members took the audience on a ride along different musical realms. Just slightly touching on some characteristic stylistic features those were imbibed and effortlessly integrated in their very own flow. With two horns, vocals and a connected rhythm section the band celebrated full sound. Rounding up Danish drums-organ-duo Crunch House was quite a bare bones contrast. Also the combination of these two young musicians, Jonas Ladegaard on drums and Emil Savery, is an illustrious contrast of temperaments: Ladegaard decidedly aggressive, at the edge of overdoing and Savery, shady and laid back. They turned the popular Hammond B3 genre upside down, redefined it completely. No prisoners were taken. With their different kinds of inexhaustible energy they went off, sharp with full blow.