The Thing with James Blood Ulmer at Moldejazz

Moldejazz 2015 is over and here is a video from one of the highlights from the festival:
The Thing with James Blood Ulmer!

As usual the weather was shitty and the music was great! The festival economy has been pretty strained the last years, and after this year we might see a change, since they have decided to end the outdoor concerts. These concerts were supposed to draw huge audiences that probably wouldn´t turn up for the regular jazz concerts and finance the other stuff happening (and perhaps get some to attend other concerts they didn´t mean to visit). They have had Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Antony, Leonard Cohen and Stevie Wonder (to name a few) but the tactics have failed these last years (due to weather, programming, higher costs and so on), and D´Angelo not showing up for his concert Friday last week due to disease (on extremely short notice) was probably what did it for the festival.

Perhaps we will get a more focused festival the years to come. Might be a good thing in the end.

This year I attended The Thing + Ulmer concert (what power!), Zanussi 5 (please check out this band!) , Trondheim Jazz Orchestra with Espen Reinertsen doing a "Forgaflingspop" project (sweet!) and artist in residence Mats Gustafsson´s tribute to the Norwegian skier Petter Northug (crazy!).

The Thing at Harpa, Reykjavik

The Thing at Harpa, Reykjavik, 20 August 2014.

It says part 1 on YouTube, so we better wait for more from Iceland and Paal Nilssen-Love, Mats Gustafsson and Ingebrigt Håker Flaten.

Added 2 September:
And here is Part 2, a version ov John Coltrane´s "India".

The Thing at La Dynamo France, Feb. 2014

The Thing - Mediawave, May 2 2014

Unfortunately I missed this spring´s The Thing concert in Bergen, and I missed their concert at Blå in Oslo this week, not being able to attend even if I was near by.

Here at least we get a short video from the Mediawave International Film and Music Gathering in Fort Monostor, Hungary, 29 April - 3 May

The trio:
Mats Gustafsson - bass saxophone
Ingebrigt Håker Flaten - bass guitar
Paal Nilssen-Love - drums

And if you want to hear them at the club Blå in Oslo, you may listen to (as a lot of you know of course) the album "Live At Blå!", released in 2005, recorded in 2003.

The Thing Live at Bergen Jazzforum February 2014

Even if I never tire of The Thing´s energetic music (both on records and live!), I couldn´t make it to the concert at Bergen Jazzforum yesterday (21 February 2104).

Thanks to Egil Andersen´s Youtube account we may at least enjoy 13 minutes of the concert (fades out at the end there, unfortunately, but still!).

The Thing: Paal Nilssen-Love (dr), Mats Gustafsson (sax) and Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (b).

The Thing & Joe McPhee in Brazil

The Thing & Joe McPhee dedicated Mongezi Feza´s beautiful "You Ain't Gonna Know Me 'Cos You Think You Know Me" to Nelson Mandela, when they played in Santos, Brazil (27 June 2013) (YouTube).

The Thing & Otomo Yoshihide

Ah! Watch and listen to The Thing with Otomo Yoshihide, in this video from Austria in 2010!

Otomo Yoshihide is touring with Paal Nilssen-Love these days, and here is (part of?) the route they will follow (taken from PNLs web site):

02/05/2013

Yoshihide/Nilssen-Love

Taxitakeaway/Oslo/NO


03/05/2013

Yoshihide/Nilssen-Love

Bergen Kjøtt/Bergen/NO


04/05/2013

Otomo Yoshihide/Paal Nilssen-Love

Copenhagen Jazzhouse/Copenhagen/Denmark


A few days later Yoshihide will rule Cafe Oto.

Neneh Cherry & The Thing ''A Tribute to Don Cherry''

I have posted several clips from this one earlier in the blog, but here is the full "A Tribute to Don Cherry" concert with Neneh Cherry & The Thing, from Heineken Jazzaldia 2012!

Track list from YouTube:

1. Dream Baby Dream (A. Vega & M. Rev)
2. Golden Heart (D. Cherry)
3. Sudden Moment (M. Gustafsson)
4. Cashback (N. Cherry)
5. Dirt (J. Osterberg, R. Asheton, S. Asheton, D. Alexander)
6. Accordion (D. Dumile & O. Jackson)
7. Call the Police (S. McDee)
8. Wrap your Troubles in Dreams (H. Barris)

The Thing with Thurston Moore @ Cafe Oto 10.2.13

Holy smokes!

Bobby Bradford et al: Kampen

Please check out this band:
Bobby Bradford - cornet
Frode Gjerstad - clarinets and alto sax
Ingebrigt Håker Flaten - bass
Paal Nilssen-Love - drums

Both the band, and each of the musicians, have visited the blog several times of course, and now they are back with a new album named "Kampen", on NoBusiness (Lithuania).

What you get is probably free jazz, but it sounds pretty straightforward too. Think Ornette Coleman, who Bobby Bradford played with.
You may have noticed that I never (seldom?) pretend to be much of a music expert, outside of being a fan ("great album" style), but here I must be allowed to at least say that the interaction between the musicians is fantastic!

The music was recorded live during Kampenjazz in Oslo, november 2010, and "Kampen" is the name of an area in Oslo (in case you wonder).

300 copies of "Kampen" were made, only on vinyl and (unfortunately) no download codes given away. I had my copy in my house in Bergen less than a week after I ordered it, and that´s impressive!

The naming of the tracks is my kind of humor:
1: This is
2: A live
3: Recording from
4: Kampen, Oslo

Cover design: Dansas Mikailionis

Let me also remind you of the album "Reknes" by the same musicians (Circulasione Totale 2009), recorded at the Reknes club at Moldejazz 2008 and "Dragon" by Bradford, Gjerstad and Nilssen-Love (PNL Records 2012). The last one was recorded at Klub Drago in Poznan (Poland) a couple of days prior to "Kampen". Buy all of them!

Neneh Cherry & The Thing "A Tribute to Don Cherry"

Please check out Neneh Cherry & The Thing at the 47th Heineken Jazzaldia - Festival de Jazz de San Sebastián 2012!

And don´t forget "The Cherry Thing" (Smalltown Supersound 2012).

Metal!

The Thing is Paal Nilssen-Love (dr), Mats Gustafsson (sax) and Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (b). You all knew that. Most of you also know this is one of the toughest trios around, but have you heard their new double vinyl on No Business, with Barry Guy (b)?

It was released some months ago, and only 600 copies are pressed, so just get one as soon as possible. Seems like there is no digital release.

How many people buy albums like this? 600 copies might not be that few, or what do you think? "Limited edition" releases often make me shop, but then I see the same records for sale several years later (still no regrets from me!).

The album is called "Metal!", and the tracks (except a cover of Lightning Bolt´s "Ride the sky") are named after metals, and are organized after rising atomic numbers, from Lanthanum (track one) (57) to Dysprosium (66).

I have probably mentioned this several times, but I really like The Thing when they go full speed, and we get that, but also lots of more relaxed improv (if "relaxed" may be used about The Thing?).
My favorites are two duo improvisations (the whole of side 2) with Barry Guy and Ingebrigt Håker Flaten ("Praseodymium"), and Mats Gustafsson and Paal Nilssen-Love ("Neodymium").

The recording was done in Saint Catherine´s Church in Vilnius, and please watch the two videos below.
You might also benefit from a close study of The Perioddc Table, for a full understanding of this music.

Moldejazz 2012 - Friday

Things you may experience on a Friday at Moldejazz:

- Jazz historian Bjørn Stendahl had invited Evan Parker and Alexander von Schlippenbach to talk about European Free Jazz at the Festival Academy. Avantgarde, free jazz, creative music, progressive jazz, call it whatever you like, these guys have been there, and seemed to enjoy talking about it too!

- Lasse Marhaug turned the volume up at visual artist Kjell Bjørgeengen´s festival exhibition, also bringing some more action to the screens. Good stuff!

- Alexander von Schlippenbach (p), Paul Lovens (dr) and Evan Parker (sax) were in a bit of hurry, and had to finish their trio concert after 50 minutes, because two of them had a plane to catch.
Seeing Evan Parker and Paul Lovens several times this week, has been the festival highlight for me.

And since it was Friday night, i was allowed to stay out after midnight to see Neneh Cherry and The Thing! Even if the sound was not perfect from the word go, at least where I was hiding (close to one of the walls), things got much better (or I was relaxing more in the club atmosphere?) and the show was great (music, sound, lights etc)!
My back was hurting like hell after standing on my feet for almost two hours, but that did not feel too bad after all, when I heard that the poor people of the band had to get on a night ferry after the concert, to reach their venue in Austria in time for the Saturday concert! What happened to stars and posh parties?

"Fire Flate" uploaded a video from the Schlippenbach/Lovens/Parker concert. More videos here.

Atomic at Kongsberg

Never expect anything less than a great show from Atomic! Here they are at The Kongsberg Jazz Festival the other day.

The Cherry Thing

Yes, you have already heard about it in this very blog, but now I finally got hold of Neneh Cherry and The Thing´s album "The Cherry Thing" (Smalltown 2012). It seems like the international release date is 19 June.

Check out two of the tracks right here, Suicide´s "Dream Baby Dream" from SoundCloud and the video to "Accordion" (Madvillain/MF Doom), before you run on over to the nearest store. The album is a fine mix of jazz, rap og rock tunes, and Neneh Cherry´s voice is perfect for Mats Gustafsson, Paal Nilssen-Love and Ingebrigt Håker Flaten in The Thing, and they are the perfect band of course.

There are originals by Gustafsson and Cherry, and covers of Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry (Neneh Cherry´s step father), The Stooges, Martina Topley-Bird and The Stooges, in addition to the two already mentioned above.

I bet they are even tougher live, and look forward to their concert at the Molde International Jazz Festival in July.

If you are able to read Norwegian, Jenny Hval has an interesting piece in Bergen´s local newspaper Bergens Tidende (3 June 2012) called "Kjøtt og kirsebær" (that is "Meat and cherries").

Here are the tour dates, taken from Smalltown´s site:

SATURDAY 30/06/ Ljubljana Jazzfestival/Slovenia
SUNDAY 01/07/ Porgy & Bess/Vienna/Austria
MONDAY 02/07/ Lucerna Music Bar/Prague/Czech
TUESDAY 03/07 Zaporochye/Ukrain
THURSDAY 05/07/ Trænafestivalen/Træna/Mo i Rana/NO
SATURDAY 07/07/ Kongsberg Jazzfestival/N (the thing + Augusti Fernandez and Peter Evans)
TUESDAY 10/07/ Copenhagen Jazzfestival/Denmark
THURSDAY 12/07 Moriska Paviljongen/Malmö/Sweden
FRIDAY 13/07 Nefertiti/Göteborg/Sweden
SUNDAY 15/07/ Village Underground/London
MONDAY 16/07/ MelkwegAmsterdam/Netherlands
TUESDAY 17/07 Karlsruhe/Germany
WEDNESDAY 18/07/ A l´arme Festival/Berlin/Germany
FRIDAY 20/07/ Molde Jazzfestival/Molde/NO
SATURDAY 21/07 Konfrontationen/Nickelsdorf/Austria
SUNDAY 22/07 Girona/Spain
MONDAY 23/07/ San Sebastian/Spania

Neneh Cherry & The Thing - Accordion (Madvillain/MF Doom cover)

Neneh Cherry & The Thing "The Cherry Thing" will be released on Smalltown 19 June.
20 July they will play at Moldejazz!

Listen to "Accordion".

The Thing at Sting (Stavanger 2011)

Back from Easter holiday today, after a long drive from Molde.
Enjoying The Thing, and looking forward to "The Cherry Thing" (Smalltown) in June.

The Thing, Jazz Sigüenza, 2010

The Thing at the Festival Internacional Jazz Sigüenza in 2010 (but new on YouTube).
Paal Nilssen-Love, Mats Gustafsson and Ingebrigt Håker Flaten.

Play loud! Nuff said!

The Thing: Mono

The Thing are here again, with another album called "Mono". Yes, it is recorded in mono, and was released by Smalltown Superjazzz towards the end of 2011 or the beginning of 2012 (you don´t always know with that company, but it says 2011 on the cover).

On their previous records they have had guests visiting, but here they are back to the original three: Mats Gustafsson (sax), Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (b) and Paal Nilssen-Love (dr) (watch them "on tour" here!).
This is tough enough as usual, and with some more relaxing moments in between. On "Mono" we get the folky "Bruremarsj" and the sad "There is Shitloads of Red Meat Missing" (!). The last title is of course a nightmare for the meat eaters of The Thing, usually performing in Ruby´s BBQ Ts.
Yes, you have to get this one too! Four band compositions, one tune by Paal Nilssen-Love ("Viking", not Stavanger´s own football team I hope??) and "Alfies Theme" by Sonny Rollins. The album clocks in at only 35 minutes.
But how about the sound fanatics (I´m relaxed), do they like new mono recordings?

Cover design: Rune Mortensen.

Scorch Trio with Mars Williams

Late 2011, Rune Grammofon released 500 copies of a white vinyl double album with Scorch Trio. Scorch Trio is Raoul Björkenheim (g, el mandolin), Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (el b) and Frank Rosaly (dr), and on "Made in Norway" (Rune 2011) they are joined by sax player Mars Williams.

The recordings were made at Cafe Mono in Oslo (23 May 2011) and at the Nattjazz festival in Bergen (25 May 2011). As usual Scorch Trio seem to improvise the track titles too, and we get sloo, oosl, loos, oslo, genber, enberg and bergen! I missed the Bergen concert (can´t remember the excuse), so I´m happy to have the album at least! Like it a lot!

Cover: Kim Hiorthøy.

Scorch Trio did release a live album some years ago too. "Live in Finland" was sold mainly during a 2007 tour, and only 400 copies were made. You may want to hunt that one too, but after you have got hold of the double album from Rune.