Stefan Pasborg - Ritual Dances (February 11, 2022 Sunnyside Records)

Danish drummer/composer Stefan Pasborg grew up in a household of ballet dancers, allowing him to have an intimate relationship with their lifestyle and performances. One of his first formative musical experiences was witnessing a performance of Igor Stravinsky’s legendary ballet, The Rite of Spring, by The Danish Royal Ballet. The experience embedded a love for Stravinsky’s work that has manifested in Pasborg’s new recording, Ritual Dances.

Pasborg has been an important voice in the European jazz and improvised music scenes for the past two decades. His dynamic drumming and eclectic tastes have pushed him into collaborations with many stellar musicians, including Wadada Leo Smith, Tomasz Stańko, Miroslav Vitouš, amongst many others. Pasborg has also led a number of celebrated ensembles, the most notable being Ibrahim Electric.

Even though his compositions were seen as dangerously revolutionary when they premiered, Igor Stravinsky’s music has inspired listeners for generations. His many works have become part of the canon for many philharmonic orchestras but are still presented in more challenging programs. Stravinsky was a key figure in avant-garde symphonic writing, but it was his ballets, The Rite of Spring, The Firebird, and Petrushka, that solidified his legend.

The Rite of Spring and The Firebird were the two ballets that inspired Pasborg to reinterpret the Stravinsky’s work for a jazz big band. Ritual Dances takes music from these two works as a basis for Pasborg’s re-structuring. The pieces are heard performed by two large ensembles: the UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra on two live cuts and Blood Sweat Drum+Bass for the complete studio recording. The bands are augmented by a number of soloists and electronic musicians.

The program begins with UMO’s take of “Spring Round Dance,” a bombastic and grooving piece with winding Rhodes and aggressive horns. “Sacrificial Dance” introduces the Blood Sweat Drum+Bass ensemble with a marching cadence, which builds into a rocking ending with Jeppe Kjellberg’s wailing guitar. Mystery and intensity are intertwined on “Ritual Dance,” while Pasborg’s subtle drums lead into “Adoration of the Earth,” where Stravinsky’s famous theme can clearly be heard on Fredrik Lundin’s tenor sax.

Overdriven guitar ambience leads to the edgy, martial cadence of “Dances of the Young Girls;” swirling crescendos feature a brilliant Ståle Storløkken organ solo. Ethereal percussion provides an aural bed for Goran Kajfes’s trumpet on “Introduction,” while “Princess’ Game” borrows from The Firebird in an enticingly spastic jaunt. The slinky sound of “Infernal Dance” has a noirish tinge. The laconic “Tableau” features a warm and slightly western duet between tenor player Anders Banke and guitarist Kjellberg before launching into a challenging rhythmic workout. Blood Sweat revisit “Spring Round Dance” with Lundin’s sax singing over the infectious, churning rhythms. The recording concludes with UMO’s intense and episodic performance of “Dances of the Young Girls,” featuring standout performances by Seppo Kantonen and Jussi Kannaste.

Stefan Pasborg’s reinvention of Igor Stravinsky’s iconic works from The Rite of Spring and The Firebird are as brilliant as they are invigorating. Ritual Dances doesn’t rewrite Stravinsky so much as bring his work into the 21st century in bombastic style. 

1. Spring Round Dance (Live)

2. Sacrificial Dance

3. Ritual Dance

4. Adoration of the Earth

5. Dances of the Young Girls (Studio)

6. Introduction

7. Princess' Game

8. Infernal Dance

9. Tableau

10. Spring Round Dance (Studio)

11. Dances of the Young Girls (Live)

Stefan Pasborg - drums

Anders Banke - tenor sax (tracks 3, 5, 6, 8, 9), clarinet (tracks 2, 3, 4, 6, 7)

Anders Filipsen - keyboards (tracks 2-10)

Fredrik Lundin - tenor sax (tracks 3, 4, 10)

Goran Kajfes - trumpet (track 6)

Jeppe Kjellberg - guitar (tracks 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10)

Jeppe Tuxen - Hammond B3 organ (tracks 6, 8)

Jussi Kannaste - tenor sax (tracks 1, 11)

Mikael Myrskog - Moog bass (tracks 1, 7, 8, 11)

Rune Harder Olesen - percussion (tracks 7, 10)

Seppo Kantonen - keyboards (tracks 1, 11)

Ståle Storløkken - Hammond B3 organ (track 5)

UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra (tracks 1 & 11):

Ville Vannemaa - conductor

Mikko Mäkinen - soprano, alto sax

Sampo Kasurinen - tenor sax, flute

Teemu Salminen - tenor sax, bass clarinet

Max Zenger - baritone sax, bass clarinet

Marko Portin - flute

Teemu Mattsson - trumpet

Timo Paasonen - trumpet

Tomi Nikku - trumpet

Tero Saarti - trumpet

Kasperi Sarikoski - trombone

Mikko Mustonen - trombone

Pekka Laukkanen - trombone

Mikael Långbacka - bass trombone

Aarne Riikonen - percussion

Blood Sweat Drum+Bass (tracks 2-10):

Jens Christian "Chappe" Jensen - conductor, saxophones (track 9)

Michael Mølhede - trumpet, flugelhorn

Bent Hjort - trumpet, flugelhorn

Malte Pedersen - trumpet, flugelhorn

René Damsbak - trumpet, flugelhorn

Ole Visby - soprano sax, clarinet, bass clarinet

Julie Kjaer - alto sax, flute, alto flute

Jacob Rønne Danielsen - tenor saxophone, contrabass clarinet, clarinet

Nikolaj Schneider - tenor sax, clarinet

Harald Langåsdalen - baritone sax, clarinet

Jens Kristian Bang - trombone

Jonathan Bruun Meyer - trombone

Kirstine Kjaerulff Ravn - trombone

Jonathan Henneveld - bass trombone

Rasmus Svale Kjaergård Lund - tuba

Sisse Foged Hyllestad - bass

Magnus Lindgaard Jochumsen - percussion

Søren Lyngsø Knudsen - electronics

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Tomasz Dąbrowski - Tomasz Dąbrowski & The Individual Beings (February 11, 2022 April Records)

POLISH TRUMPET STAR’S NEW ALBUM HONORS ICON ON HISTORIC HORN

Tomasz Dąbrowski makes his April Records debut with an all-star septet, presenting music inspired by Tomasz Stańko and reflecting on his lasting legacy, lessons learned, and making music on one of the legend’s own storied instruments.

“There are several layers of connection with Stańko,” Tomasz Dąbrowski (b.1984) explains. Both celebrated Polish musicians with the same first name were also wired in similarly creative ways – each forging ahead in their own unmistakable voices on the same instrument (literally the same trumpet… more on that later). Stańko (1942-2018), the recently departed legend, imparted artistic wisdom through his example during their time working together.

In addition to listening to Stańko’s music while growing up in Poland, Dąbrowski had a poster of the jazz titan in his bedroom for years and remembers the first time they met: “He knew who I was… that was very encouraging,” the younger Tomasz says.

This new album is also connected to Stańko in multiple ways. The band was initially created for a concert in Lodz in May of 2020 when Dąbrowski was commissioned to write (and assemble an ensemble to present) new music for the closing concert at the Letnia Akademia Jazzu in Poland that year. He used it as an opportunity to honor his late hero, mentor, colleague, bandmate, and friend. The concert was a success and a recording session was planned for the following year, giving Tomasz time to write and polish new material. The result of the session is the deeply moving and exciting album available to listeners today.

“For a long time, I thought that it was important to be able to play ‘everything’ and make it sound ‘right,’ but after I met Stanko and had some time to reflect on this, I realized that what’s most important is to have your own voice – a voice so strong that it can exist in whatever context you choose and it will still be you,” Dąbrowski shares.

The band’s name and album’s title, Individual Beings, is also a reference to a Stańko quote – taken from Desperado, a print biography available only in Polish – which Dąbrowski translates for us: “I don't feel lonely. I am an individual being… I am Polish, I was born here, Polish is my main language, I am deeply connected with this land, but most of all I feel I am Tomasz Stańko. Individual Being. I am a unique gathering of atoms, there is no one else like that in the world, in the cosmos. Here I am.”

That resonated deeply with Dąbrowski, who took it even further: “we’re all Individual Beings, and our individuality is the strongest thing we have to offer the world – it has to be protected and developed.”

Dąbrowski has honored that mindset and responsibility throughout his career, and never more so than on this new album. The music on this recording, which he describes among other things as a “search for simplicity,” is brought to life by the trumpeter/composer/arranger and six other musicians – apart from saxophonist Fredrik Lundin (Denmark) and drummer Knut Finsrud (Norway), the rest of the group’s members are Polish or based in Poland (Irek Wojtczak on tenor/soprano saxophone & electronics, Grzegorz Tarwid on grand piano & keyboards, Max Mucha on double bass, and Jan Emil Mtynarski on electric & acoustic drums). Each musician arrived into the bandleader’s life sometime over the last half-decade or so, and was chosen for this project, specifically, for their representation and manifestation of one of the things most important to Dąbrowski: “personality, both on and off stage.”

Finally, there’s the horn. During the recording session for the new album, Tomasz (Dąbrowski) played one of Stańko’s horns – his primary instrument in the 1990s, on which he did some of his best work – on loan from Anna Stańko, daughter of the dear departed. “It gave a lot of power to me,” the bandleader says.

That power can be felt, heard, and celebrated throughout Tomasz Dąbrowski’s first release on April Records – as he and the other six other Individual Beings in a powerful, brilliantly and acutely attuned septet present a program that traverses a vast sonic soundscape. This is the next riveting chapter in the story of a real-time rising star and a mature, reflective homage to a late, great legend. 

1. JR 06:19

2. Old Habits 05:10

3. In Transit 03:36

4. Sandy 06:06

5. Troll 06:41

6. Queen of Mondays 04:21

7. Short Gesture 05:08

8. Spurs of Luck 04:25

Tomasz Dąbrowski – Trumpet and Electronics

Fredrik Lundin – Tenor Saxophone

Irek Wojtczak – Tenor and Soprano Saxophone plus Electronics

Grzegorz Tarwid – Grand Piano and Keyboards

Max Mucha – Double Bass

Knut Finsrud – Acoustic Drums

Jan Emil Młynarski – Electric and Acoustic Drums

Produced by Tomasz Dąbrowski and Michał Kupicz

Recorded by Michał Kupicz

Mixed by Michał Kupicz

Mastered by Kæv Gliemann

Photos by Filip Ćwik (front) and Sisi Cecylia (back)

Liner Notes by Peter Margasak, DownBeat

Cover design by Enrico Andreis

All compositions by Tomasz Dąbrowski

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Jørgen Emborg & Steve Swallow - Over the Rainbow (Remastered 2021) May 7, Storyville Records

This 1992 set showcases the work of the Danish pianist/composer Jørgen Emborg with a quintet including his specially invited guest, the American bass-guitarist Steve Swallow. The leader (born in Frederiksberg on March 29 1953) had already packed a lot of musical experience into his career. Bursting upon the scene as early as 1975 at the famous Dunkerque Jazz Festival, he had become a permanent member of the Danish Radio Big Band, alongside working with such varied visiting artists as Eddie Harris, Red Rodney and Dee Dee Bridgewater. Now described as probably the most important composer of contemporary Danish jazz, he created two significant albums incorporating vocalist Mona Larsen (Ships In The Night and Face The Music) and Moonsongs with Susanne Palbol in 2005.

The career of Steve Swallow (born October 4 1940) has been equally broad-based. Taking up the bass only at the age of 18 after studying piano and trumpet, he soon joined Paul Bley and, with Bley, the free-jazz edition of the Jimmy Giuffre trio; at the other end of the stylistic spectrum, he played later in the 1960s for Art Farmer, Gary Burton and, with Burton, the Stan Getz quartet. An early champion of the writing of Carla Bley, he became her sideman (and eventually her partner) while also developing his own skills as a composer; later, he also became a successful free-lance producer, working on albums by John Scofield, for instance.

Most significantly, beginning in the 1960s, he has taken the bass-guitar from being an instrument only accepted in rock or fusion contexts to one which, through his mobile lines and veiled, singing tone, has helped to set the standard for bass playing in even acoustic jazz groups. Interestingly, Swallow’s acceptance of the JAZZPAR invitation to appear as the guest of Jørgen Emborg was, as it turned out, chronologically linked in with another guest appearance he made on a recording project by the great Danish bassist Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen. And it’s appropriate here to mention the inclusion in Emborg’s group of drummer Alex Riel who, although he had previously collaborated with Emborg, first became widely known as NHØP’s colleague in the house rhythm section of Copenhagen’s Montmartre Club in the 1960s.

Riel had preceded Emborg in being selected as one of the JAZZPAR featured artists in 1990, as had the young saxophonist Fredrik Lundin who, as composer, contributed one of the works for Lee Konitz’s performance with the JAZZPAR Nonet, also recorded as part of JAZZPAR’s 1992 celebrations.

The history of the JAZZPAR AWARDS constitutes, in retrospect, a significant development in the recognition of jazz by international arbiters of taste, and by distributors of monetary recognition. Set up by the Danish Jazz Center and sponsored by Skandinavisk Tobakskompagni, it was the first award in the jazz field to offer an international nominee not only the exposure of a concert series, but the donation of a statuette and a significant cash prize (amounting to 200,000 Danish kroner). Between 1990 and 2004, the award was made to several American performers but also, reflecting the history of the music itself, to six Europeans (Tony Coe, Django Bates, Martial Solal, Marilyn Mazur, Enrico Rava and Aldo Romano). 

1. Uneven Thinking

2. Waltz In Four

3. Forgotten Truth

4. Over The Rainbow

5. My Kind Of Blues

6. On The Second Day

7. Some Other Time

8. Password

9. Say After Me Please

10. Sweak Spedish

11. One Step At A Time

12. Impatience

13. Temporary Agreement

Jørgen Emborg - Piano

Steve Swallow - Bass Guitar

Fredrik Lundin - Tenor Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone

Alex Riel - Drums

Lisbeth Diers - Percussion

Recorded at Sun Studio in Copenhagen, March 28th and 29th, 1992

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Fredrik Lundin - 5 Go Adventuring Again (CHALLENGE RECORDS February 09, 2018)

With the quintet FIVE GO ADVENURING AGAIN, Lundin has created a “small” band with a very large and richly faceted sound. The five unique musicians take advantage of the orchestra’s sound possibilities, and in the compositions, provide ample space to utilize their improvisa- tional potential. The explosive music is tempered by the Polish trumpeter Tomasz Dabrowski, two Swedes: Petter Hängsel on trombone/synthezeizer and Joel Illerhag on the bazantar (a homemade double bass with resonance strings), and two Danes: Anders Provis on acoustic and electric drums, and the Maestro himself on various saxophones.

1 The Hound of Baskerville  09:19

2 Crumbling Castles  04:56

3 Wondering  05:04

4 Dodging Bullets  05:23

5 The Pond  06:01

6 Borderland  07:48

7 Jumping Jack  02:26

8 Tilbage til start  06:17

9 Being in a Dark Place*  06:24

10 Prairie Dreams  06:39

Fredrik Lundin - tenor, mezzo soprano & baritone saxophones

Tomasz Dabrowski - trumpet

Petter Hängsel - trombone & sylo synth

Joel Illerhag - bazantar

Anders Provis - drums, spds drumpads & percussion

*Jesper Løvdal - contra bass clarinet