Nashville born Kandace Springs is a rising star on the vocal firmament. Believe me. I never heard her before but what I can hear on her début Blue Note recording brings enough to me to indicate it clearly. This young lady has both remarkable talent and an incredible voice. Soon She will win herself a lot of love from an audience worldwide.

This recording is somehow a consequence of two happenings which took place before. The first and most obvious is ACT’s Jazzpaña series which has already hit its first decade anniversary. The second is Jazz At the Berlin Philharmonic cycle when two guitarists met and performed together for the first time. One of this great ideas Mr. Loch comes to from time to time.  This also means as well that there is a well prepared audience already around to appreciate it.

Saxophonist’s Blue Note début meaningfully entitled Nihil Novi straight on eliminates all the theories one my have about what he is listening to here. It is nothing new indeed but this is what a good Chef is supposed to do with the same old and well known ingredients: A New and Tasty Dish. But the other Cooks involved also matter and that’s why their finishing touches are all so recognizable.

This is one of those sessions I was waiting to happen for a long time. Eight years actually as this is exactly the time which passed from original Mare Nostrum recording. Only a few like that exist in a entire music history which are possessing the same magic and charm. 

I had the pleasure to write about Espen Eriksen‘s Trio before when their début LP What Took You So Long hit the world. Since that two more recordings followed with the latest Never Ending January which I am just taking on board. Eriksen’s style has something unusual in his melodic approach. It reflects that a lot had been learned from Esbjorn Svensson Trio.

This recording goes away from Jazz quite far but good music doesn’t have to be pure Jazz. I went through those tracks many times as I know the musicians playing in the rhythmic section very well. No experience with Kalima himself, so here I am entering an unexplored territory. Sort of. Lets start with a colloquial manifest that I don’t like Country at all. The only true Country like recordings I heard firmed by a jazz musician  is Bill Frisell‘s Nashville. That I can not only stand but also enjoy. Intrigued?

Greg Cohen made so many freaky departures with multiple Zorn‘s squats that he can truly be called The Mighty Veteran. Despite the fact he is not that old yet. I am madly in love with his music! Max Andrzejewski on the contrary is a new spirit to me and I reviewed here his Traumton recordings. These ones again I admire and value highly for their devilishly challenging sense of humour on pair with his technical virtuosity. Kalima, being a guitarist automatically had been compared to Frisell in a project like this. Not only he survived but also hold his own. Those three musicians found an absolute perfection in the way they communicate. And there are few reasons for this I believe.

First of all is that despite the fact they did choose western tunes it didn’t determinate the way they interpreted them. Far from a cowboy’s ethos, they remind me more of the urban knights. Somehow they found the way to compare the loneliness of the human being today which compares to the riders of the vast barren prairies which they had been faced with .

The second they stuck to the feeling of vastness of the open space and kept it prevented and not losing this in their tracks. In a piece  like Ghost Riders in The Sky, a typical western soundtrack they kept the drive and energy. But they did drop the ideology. I can listen to this music now and watch different pictures in the background without a single wrong feeling.

Kalima learned a lot from Frisell. One can hear this over and over on the following High Noon or El Paso, but also from Marc Ribot. Look at the piece entitled Lannen Lokari with a marching snare intro teamed with guitar chords. We are getting there music which is sounding more like Russian folk tune played on a Balalaika rather than on a guitar. Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah carries completely new meaning in this environment. Here it gets the Appalachian treatment it never before had to match the boundaries.

Except this tune by Salomaa and one other from Jean Sibelius all the others came from the Country and Western stables. Handled by the musician like those three, they are flirting with everything from jazz and blues or scratched rubato riffs to the classical music. Occasionally as well in intentional interludes they go down to silly village country rides. Just to show that whatever happens in front of your ears stays in the required territory. Most importantly however is the journey as it sounds. The charm of holding this dialogue is enchanting , captivating and entertaining.

This is why now,if you would believe it, I do have TWO whole country records in my collection 😉 .

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It is a real blossom of the new talents in Switzerland I must admit. After an excellent début of Fabienne Ambühl with her trio now we got another Ace here: Florian Favre . This is one of this recording which really knocked me out and gave a lot of pleasure when I tried to follow some paths and inspirations which made that personality.

The Fire! recently active as an 18 musicians Orchestra incarnation, still downgraded from 30!, somehow – don’t ask me HOW? – found the way to make that trio recording possible. But bless them they did as an album is remarkable. As I head a pleasure recently to hear the Fire! on stage in their furious Orchestra-charged ride. With a number of gigs and rehearsals taking place plus few Fire! Orchestra recordings made meanwhile it is simple a miracle to me.

Getting back to the subjects it starts with Fire! as one should expect. But Rock alike energy here is just a surface layer. This LP is only four tracks but each has its own significance. She owned his voice is an opening one. From the initial energy escalation and Walkerian ride it moves slowly but firmly towards more modal jazz improvisation, with the lovely long lines played by Mats fulfilled by equally stunningly working rhythm section arm in arm.

Tittle She sleeps, she sleeps is my favourite one here. It contains in the mix the guitar of Oren Ambarchi. The sleepy, almost somnambulist feeling which comes from the monotony of the percussion framework that Andreas developed here is captivate. Hypnotic guitar loops are heavy and hanging around like a foggy cloud. Matts’ tenor lament builds around that and gives piece a drive. Emotional intensity makes you feel like you are dreaming one of those dreams which paralyse you but in the same time fascinates to the degree that you won’t to wake up. Ringy sounds of tortured strings are counterpointing lovely with a long decay of bells strongly hit at each brake. The piece dances in your head like Bolero as it counts alike on 3/4 too. It is like day after night, all over again. You don’t want it to stop. I do not want it to stop.

She bid a meaningless farewell which comes after starts with ascetic drumming with a massive gravity. Handled mostly on snare and toms it makes almost tribal appearance. Matts lines are drifting on the waves in silent natural way. The brake comes with cello pizzicatos added to the mix, played by Leo Svensson, which naturally blends with the drums into gentle harmony, to merge into the silence at the end.

Closing, she penetrates the distant silence. slowly, is a show of Johan Berthling’s pace keeping capabilities. Specially interesting giving his reputation of the rough sound making player. His opening riff, keeps it pace perfectly from first to last note and creates a core of the tune. Matt is swinging around that with his sexy rounded, alluring lines like fallen angel in a go go bar. The music is dark and viscid. Smoky thick and full of suspense. It sneaks like a darkness and in the same time steps light like a temptation. Cello Arcos, present in this tissue as it comes closer to the end, makes it fuller bodied and harmonically rich. It comes into gentle choruses with airy sax at some points when their paths cross. I love that recording madly and sure everybody will! Not just a trusty Fire! fans.

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