Jeppe Gram - The Doldrums (October 2021 Storyville Records)

The Danish drummer Jeppe Gram has long been a prominent figure on the Danish jazz scene. The Doldrums features nine new compostions and is his fourth album as a composer & bandleader. For this project Gram has brought together three generations of musicians who are all key figures on the Copenhagen jazz scene.

Tenor Tomas Franck is orignally from Sweden but has been one of the greatest personalities on the Danish jazz scene for decades.

The middle generation is represented by cornet player Tobias Wiklund who moves freely between modern artistic expression and a more traditional sound, and Anders Fjeldsted who has played with acclaimed local and international jazz musicians and in 2017 was one of the recipients of the Bent Jædig-Award. Jacob Artved and Ollie Wallace represent the younger generation, but are already well established musicians and are celebrated as two of the greatest young talents on the contemporary Danish jazz scene.

The mix of musicians from Gram's life from past to present is an essentiel part of the album and he describes the music as instinctively relatable for the musicians, regardless of the age differences. Musically, The Doldrums is centered around variations on the blues: both the lamenting feeling and, in a more music-theoretical sense, the blues as a form or shape with great inspiration from Gram's own jazz heroes, such as Kenny Garret, Joshua Redman and Charlie Haden. “This album is my way of saying THANK YOU to all the music and all the people who meant a lot to me back thenand still continue to do so today - musicians who have helped me develop into who and where I am today.

1. The Shooter 07:25

2. Once, Maybe Twice 05:12

3. Come And Go 06:24

4. For The Love Of The Old Beat 08:03

5. Pastoral 03:03

6. Later Blues 05:48

7. Other Windows 06:20

8. Where And When 04:04

9. The Doldrums 04:59

Jeppe Gram - Drums

Ollie Wallace - Alto Saxophone

Tobias Wiklund - Cornet

Tomas Franck - Tenor Saxophone

Jacob Artved - Electric Guitar

Anders Krogh Fjeldsted - Bass

PREORDER

Toldam / Riedel / Berg / Wiklund / Christensen - Tak for dit brev (ILK Music 2021)

“I see experiences as letters that are sent to me. With this album, I’m replying.” – Simon Toldam

The songs on Tak for dit brev (Thank You For Your Letter), the new album from Danish pianist and composer Simon Toldam, are a series of musical letters inspired by personal transformative events and a tribute to the daily shared experience of being unavoidably affected by both the positive and disheartening things around us.

On Tak for dit brev, Toldam explores a melodically-motivated sonic landscape, marking a departure from his more recent chord-centric work. He wrote most of the songs on clarinet, which applied new parameters and added new character to the process. Writing on a single-voice instrument (limited to playing one note at a time) demands and offers a different compositional approach than a multi-voiced instrument like piano does.

This opened up new structural doors to Toldam, compelling him to create the melodic material first, thereafter creating the harmonic context and arrangement around it. His marvelous ability to absorb and create music from surprising and fascinating angles is on full display here as he presents songs which orbit around strong melodies and shine with unabashed influence from Scandinavian Folk and Jazz musical traditions.

For the recording session at Stockholm’s Atlantic Studio in June of 2019, Toldam invited legendary Swedish bassist and composer, Georg Riedel (born 1934). Among other things, Riedel is known for his celebrated collaborations with Swedish pianist Jan Johansson (appearing on the timeless masterpiece, JAZZ PÅ SVENSKA), as well as having scored several Astrid Lindgren films, including Pippi Longstocking, Emil of Maple Hills, and many more. The rest of the band includes some of the most original voices and instrumental story-tellers in Scandinavia – Nils Berg on bass clarinet, Tobias Wiklund on cornet, and Anders Christensen on bass.

Tak for dit brev is Toldam’s 15th album as leader and co-leader. He is a recipient of the prestigious 3-year Working Grant from the Danish Arts Council, and a winner of5 Danish Jazz Grammys (Danish Music Awards), most recently “Jazz Album of the Year” in 2019 for his trio recording, OMHU.

1. Mor 03:54

2. Nu sejler vi 04:23

3. Måneløb 05:33

4. Luft 00:59

5. Et postkort 06:40

6. Opdrift 04:41

7. Den Blå Stol 04:31

8. Alberts Tic Tac 04:38

9. Godmorgen træ 04:16

10. Gå Gå Gå 03:44

11. Dansk Kulturarv ? 05:41

12. To virkeligheder 03:17

Simon Toldam - piano / clarinet

Georg Riedel - bass

Nils Berg - bass clarinet

Tobias Wiklund - cornet

Anders Christensen - bass

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