Ole Kock Hansen & Thomas Fonnesbaek: Fine Together / / Nordic Moods

Straightahead / Mainstream Jazz
premiera polska: 2016-02-03,
Wydawnicto Audiofilskie
kontynent: Europa
kraj: Dania
opakowanie: plastikowe etui
opis:
multikultiproject.blogspot.com - ocena: * * * * *
Duety fortepianu i kontrabasu nie mają w muzyce jazzowej długiej tradycji. Znajdziemy jednak w historii jazzu kilka dowodów na wyjątkową symbiozę brzmienia kontrabasu i fortepianu. Są to chociażby płyty Charlie’go Hadena z Kenny’m Barronem „Night At The City” z 1998 roku czy też Hadena z Keithem Jarretem „Jasmine” z 2010 i „Last Dance” z 2014 roku.

Pianista Ole Kock Hansen to nestor skandynawskiej pianistyki jazzowej, długoletni współpracownik Nielsa-Henninga Orsteda Pedersena, ale także Thada Jonesa, Bena Webstera czy Etty Cameron.

Thomas Fonnesbaek to z kolei młody duński kontrabasista (rocznik 1977), z wielką swobodą poruszający się po świecie akustycznego jazzu, czego nie raz dawał wyraz w składach Hansa Ulrika, Alexa Riela, Larsa Janssona czy Ulfa Wakeniusa. Jego znakomita duetowa płyta z 2015 roku z duńską wokalistką jazzową Sinne Eeg „Eeg-Fonnesbek” spotkała się z doskonałym przyjęciem na świecie.

Fundamentem nagrania jest wynikająca ze wspólnoty kulturowej mistrzowska zdolność komunikacji obu muzyków. Tak jak jazzowi muzycy amerykańscy znajdują korzenie jazzu w popularnych pieśniach i tańcach muzyki afro-amerykańskiej, tzw. negro-spirituals, tak duńscy muzycy sięgają do skarbnicy tradycyjnych skandynawskich melodii, które jak się okazuje mają podobny potencjał. Te swoiste euro-spirituals, w nasyconych emocjami romantycznego ducha interpretacjach Hansena i Fonnesbaeka po prostu zachwycają. Płytę uzupełniają standardy skandynawskich gigantów jazzowych - Larsa Gullina, Niels-Henninga Orsteda Pedersena, C. E. F. Weise’go, Leo Mathisena, Evarta Taube’go i po jednej kompozycji Hansena i Fonnesbaeka.

Otrzymujemy płytę, która jakże skromnymi środkami (tylko dwa instrumenty) zawiera w sobie wiele, z tego, co znamionuje wybitne dzieła – doskonała selekcja kompozycji, subtelne i wysmakowane interpretacje, pełne spontanicznych improwizacji do tych melodyjnych, romantycznych tematów i pełna wirtuozerii, ale także wielkiej czułości do wykonywanego materiału gra obu muzyków. Sesja w Nilento Studios w szwedzkim Gothenburgu pomyślana była jak prywatne spotkanie, i być może ta intymna atmosfera była pomocna obu muzykom w dotarciu na artystyczne szczyty.
Audiofilska realizacja sprawia, że to muzyczne dialogowanie skrzy się wieloma detalami, które dodają wartości muzyce szlachetnego blasku.
autor: Andrzej Majak
Copyright © 2016 Multikulti Project. All rights reserved
Editor's info:
In Scandinavia we have light summer nights, high taxes, new Scandinavian cuisine and polar bears in the streets - well, perhaps not the latter. And in recent years we have had something else as well, which – at least in non-Scandinavian ears - binds us together: A Scandinavian sound in jazz.

However, this phenomenon – despite its prominence in international jazz debates – is ambiguous, because when listening to jazz associated with the folk idioms of each Scandinavian country, the differences are evident. Norwegian music conveys images of hills and mountains and dramatic fjords, Swedish music is always tinted with a touch of melancholia, the Atlantic roars through the music of Iceland, and Danish music often feels like a gleam of sunlight filtering through fresh green beech leaves. On this album the two musicians perform music from several Scandinavian countries, and those with knowledge of the geography, nature and cultures in the various countries, will hear the difference. But more than anything else, they play improvised music – jazz – of the finest kind.

Pianist, arranger and bandleader Ole Kock Hansen (b.1945) grew up on the west side of the island of Zealand close to his childhood friend NielsHenning Orsted Pedersen (NHOP). They retained a life-long friendship and collaborated on countless projects. In the early 1960’s he became a member of the Radio Jazz Group and subsequently the Danish Radio Big Band, with whom he worked for three decades. He wrote for and was head conductor for the orchestra for long periods. He has played piano with a wide range of Danish jazz musicians and accompanied Ben Webster, Dexter Gordon, Thad Jones, Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh among many others. He won the Jazz Musician of the Year award in 1975 and the Ben Webster Prize in 1986. Thomas Fonnesbak (b.1977) began playing bass at the age of 12 and studied with Bo Stief and NHOP.
From the late 1990’s he became a very popular freelance bassist, recording and performing with a long list of Danish and international musicians and appearing on more than 100 albums. He is active in pianists Thomas Clausen’s and Lars Jansson’s trios, and most recently his duo work with vocalist Sinne Eeg [Eeg/Fonnesbak – Stunt Records] has received great reviews. He is first call whenever Montmartre or other clubs need an accompanist for the best international artists.

Ole Kock Hansen and Thomas Fonnesbak represent two generations in Danish jazz. Kock Hansen is a seasoned musician. He has worked extensively as an arranger and bandleader, and put his own indelible mark on Danish jazz music since the 1960’s – not least as a pioneer in incorporating the Danish musical heritage in jazz. Fonnesbak is much younger. He has become very well established through a brilliant technique and the manner in which he – in his own musical language – builds on the tradition that Kock Hansen’s generation founded.

Both musicians have a special connection to deceased bassist Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen, whom for many years made Danish jazz and Copenha gen’s jazz club Montmartre world famous. Kock Hansen was his close collaborator for decades – especially in bringing forth a Danish folk tone in jazz. Fonnesbak could not possibly get around him as one of his inspirational models. The selection of themes on this CD also lead to NHOP, as he was often called. Several pieces were composed by him and others are mainstays in the repertoire he and Kock Hansen played at their many concerts together.
But this album is not a tribute to NHOP. Although NHOP played a large role in Danish jazz and in the lives of both of the musicians, and thus in some way must affect what they play today, the influence is no different from what all musicians experience from colleagues with whom they have played or whose work they have heard during their professional life. Ole Kock Hansen’s playing has continued to develop since NHOP’s death in 2005 – just listen to the art of his harmonization on this release – and Fonnesbak has created his own grounded bass sound, darker than most others - including NHOP. And these two things should be your focus point when listening to this music: Kock Hansen’s rich harmonizations and sparkling right hand in these often simple themes, and Fonnesbak’s dark, elastic tone congenially gluing the music rhythmically.

Some people evade jazz, because they feel that its element of improvisation makes it “complicated”. But as in all other art forms, the beauty in simplicity becomes ever more evident to us when in the hands of interpreters who understand how far – or particularly how short – the distance can be between complexity and simplicity. These two musicians have a rich understanding of this.
And so, they demonstrate that Scandinavian music is so much more than the sound of tranquil, light summer nights.

muzycy:
Ole Kock Hansen: piano
Thomas Fonnesbaek: bass

utwory:
1. O, Tysta Ensamhet (Trad.)
2. Sofdu, Unga Astin (Trad.)
3. Den Storste Sorg I Verdern Her Er Dog At Miste Den, Man Har Kar (Trad.)
4. Jeg Gik Mig Ud En Sommerdag (Trad.)
5. Natten Er Sa Stille (C. E. F. Weise)
6. Fine Together (Lars Gullin)
7. Those Who Were (Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen)
8. Bell (Leo Mathisen)
9. Nocturne (Evart Taube)
10. My Little Anna (Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen)
11. Altid Frejdig, Nar Du Gar (C.E.F. Weyse)
12. En Sjöman Alskar Havets Vag (Trad.)
13. Spring Waltz (Thomas Fonnesbak)
14. Uncharted Land (Niels- Henning Orsted Pedersen)
15. Blues For The Lion (Ole Kock Hansen)
16. Afsted, Afsted! I Danske Helte (Trad.)

total time - 71:27
wydano: 2015-11
more info: www.sundance.dk