Jakob Dinesen: Keys & Strings [2CD]

Straightahead / Mainstream Jazz
premiera polska: 2019-09-05,
Wydawnicto Audiofilskie
kontynent: Europa
kraj: Dania
opakowanie: digipackowe etui
opis:
multikulti.com – ocena * * * * *:
Sztuka jazzowej ballady to wciąż jedno z gorących źródeł muzyki synkopowanej. Wielu do niego sięga, niewielu jednak dociera do jego fundamentów. Często brak osobistego stosunku do granego repertuaru, innym razem razi konwencjonalność formy, o brakach warsztatowych nie mówiąc. Klepanie jazzowych ballad jest jak odbijanie karty obecności, czynność wybitnie mechaniczna.

Dla duńskiego saksofonisty Jakoba Dinesena balladowy album jest kulminacją całej jazzowej drogi, którą podąża od trzydziestu lat. To tutaj saksofonista osiąga pełną dojrzałość artystyczną i świadomość stosowanych środków. Na dwupłytowym "Keys & Strings" jest miejsce i na kompozycje wypełnione złożonymi emocjami wynikającymi z bolesnymi rozstaniami - "Hugso" i „Nicolai Smuk” (Nicolai Beautiful). Oba zadedykowane zostały zmarłym basistom - Hugo Rasmussenowi i Nicolai Munch-Hansenowi. "Hugso" pojawia się dwukrotnie, w wersji ze smyczkami i bez, obie wersje odzwierciedlają głęboką emocjonalną muzykalność Dinesena. Aksamitne brzmienie jego saksofonu, penetrowanie najczęściej górnych rejestrów instrumentu, szczodrość muzycznych pomysłów to tylko niektóre atuty tego nagrania, na którym usłyszymy między innymi wspaniałego Carstena Dahla, pianistę o osobnej wrażliwości, porównywanego z Bobo Stensonem, ale też kontrabasistę Andersa Christensena, współpracownika Jakoba Bro, Aarona Parksa, Paula Motiana i Tomasza Stańko.

Album podzielony jest na dwie części - "Keys" i "Piano", ale tak naprawdę klawisze i kwartet smyczkowy przeplatają się na obu jego częściach. Bowiem najważniejsza jest tutaj uniwersalna sztuka ballady, a Dinesen gra zarówno własne kompozycje, jak "Milton", poświęconą swojemu synowi, jak i znane klasyki, takie jak "Spring Is Here" i "Everything Happens To Me". Ten ostatni nagrany został z Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra, co sprawia, że dźwięk jest masywny i gęsty.

Dwupłytowe wydawnictwo "Keys & Strings" można z powodzeniem umieścić wśród wzorcowych nagrań w kategorii przekładania języka emocji na język nut.
autor: Mateusz Matyjak
Copyright © 1996-2019 Multikulti Project. All rights reserved

Audio - ocena: Wykonanie * * * */ Nagranie * * * *
Wydawałoby się, że w jazzie saksofon rozbrzmiewający na tle sekcji smyczkowej jest rozdziałem zamkniętym, bo w tej konfiguracji estetycznej wypowiedzieli się najwięksi mistrzowie nastroju. Należy więc podziwiać odwagę duńskiego tenorzysty, że postanowił rozwijać tę sentymentalną formułę bez powielania klasycznych wzorców, a spróbował wykreować coś współczesnego.

Jakob Dinesen jest wysoko cenionym muzykiem o międzynarodowej renomie. Ton jego saksofonu przypomina brzmienie, jakim kiedyś czarował Stan Getz. Inżynier dźwięku nagrał Dinesena z niezwykłą wyrazistością, zachowując zarazem pełną gamę subtelności jego wypowiedzi.

"Keys & Strings" stanowi jakby rozwinięcie koncepcji entuzjastycznie ocenionego poprzedniego projektu "Yasmin". Tym razem tło dla saksofonu jest znacznie bogatsze. Dinesenowi towarzyszy wymiennie trzech pianistów, kontrabasista, dwóch perkusistów, kwartet smyczkowy, a w zamykającym utworze - pełna Thailand's Philharmonic Orchestra.

Prócz zacytowania kilku standardów, większość repertuaru na podwójny kompakt została napisana przez Dinesena. Pełne melancholii linie melodyczne nie trącą banałem, i mimo że wszystkie są utrzymane w podobnym klimacie, to ich aura zaskakująco wciąga.
autor: Cezary Gumiński

All About Jazz - ocena: * * * * 1/2:
In the liner essay for Jakob Dinesen's double album, Keys & Strings, writer Eddie Michel Azoulay mentions the tenor saxophonist's quest for truth and beauty. The romantic poet John Keats is not mentioned directly, but his lines from the famous poem "Ode on a Gracian Urn" immediately come to mind: "Beauty is truth, truth beauty, that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."

Indeed, it would be correct to call Dinesen a romantic saxophonist and recording with strings—as he did on the acclaimed Yasmin (Stunt Records, 2014)—is also very romantic, especially because the album is dedicated to his wife. However, Dinesen isn't a romantic in a weltschmerz kind of a way, but that doesn't mean he is shallow. On Keys & Strings, he embraces complex emotions and acknowledges loss, which is reflected in the beautiful homages "Hugso" and "Nicolai Smuk" (Nicolai Beautiful). Both are dedicated to bassists: the late Hugo Rasmussen and Nicolai Munch-Hansen . "Hugso" for Rasmussen is even played twice, with and without strings, and both versions reflect a deep emotional musicality. But in Dinesens's world deep isn't bleak. His approach to the horn is essentially light and like tenor saxophonist Mark Turner, he finds poetry in the high register of the horn. "Homely" is a fine example of his ability to soar on the saxophone, wrapped in a warm bed of strings and aided by Carsten Dahl's crystalline piano.

The album is divided into two parts, "Keys" and "Piano," but in fact, keys and strings intertwine on both parts. Instead, the art of the ballad is the focal point and Dinesen both plays his own compositions like "Milton," dedicated to his son, and established classics such as "Spring Is Here" and "Everything Happens To Me." The latter is recorded with the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra. Compared to the other tracks with a much smaller string section, the sound is big and dense and Dinesen's light sound lifts the tune.

Dinesen has traveled far in his musical journey, playing indie-jazz with the group Once Around the Park, acoustic trio with Paul Motian on Dino (Stunt Records, 2009) and with Cuban rhythms on Dino's Afro-Cuban Dream: Enamorado in Copenhague (Stunt Records, 2011). On Keys & Strings, he plays with old friends pianist Nikolaj Torp Larsen and bassist Anders Christensen and finds new things to say. Keys & Strings is a major statement from Dinesen.
By JAKOB BAEKGAARD
Editor's info:
When the prominent Danish tenor saxophonist Jakob Dinesen’s album YASMIN was released in 2014, it attracted more than just the usual attention. Danish jazz reviewers voted the album “the best of the year” and described the release as “ballad music with a magical sense of empathy... the most beautiful and most complete Danish jazz release in a long, long time” (Jazz Special). Audiences and venues welcomed the project with open arms and ears.

KEYS & STRINGS continues where YASMIN left off, in a repertoire consisting of standards and freshly written originals. Jakob Dinesen says that his goal has been to create a poetic universe and clean, honest, emotional, expressive statements in which the individual compositions have been allowed to determine the personnel. It’s music where each song is a meditative journey without compromising the double-album’s wholeness. It’s music that almost physically surrounds the listener – a saxophone breath that leaves room and space for the other participants, whether with a trio, quartet, strings, or symphony orchestra. “Dino” (as he is known to friends) interprets the pieces with such a contagious calmness that in the liner notes Eddie Michel compares it to a musical version of the ancient Chinese martial art of Tai Chi, whose main principle is a quest for inner peace and mental and emotional balance.

On the sensitive successor to YASMIN, Jakob Dinesen’s ambitions are realized in collaboration with pianists Carsten Dahl, Heine Hansen, Darin Pantoomkomol, and Magnus Hjort, Nikolaj Torp Larsen on keyboards, bassist Anders Christensen, drummers Jakob Hoyer and Morten Aro, the string quartet from YASMIN, and in the finale, Thailand’s Philharmonic Orchestra. As producer, Kav Glieman is also responsible for the sound. Everyone involved has worked with Dino in various contexts over the last 20 years and creates a sense of presence and security that brings out the best in him.

“Since YASMIN I have written and developed a new repertoire,” explains Dino about this album, which – apart from being a touching meeting between a modern trio with piano and keyboards, a classical string quartet, and a jazz quartet – hits deep, and radiates sounds of sweetness, gentleness, and love. As mentioned, on the final track (“Everything Happens To Me”) Dino is backed by Thailand’s Philharmonic Orchestra. Despite the enormous sound, the expressiveness on this take is as delicate as fine porcelain.

“It was the pianist on YASMIN, Thai Darin Pantoomkomol, who got the idea and made it happen. It was, of course, amazing to be a soloist with a 70-man symphony orchestra,” says Jakob Dinesen.

Jakob Dinesen (b. 1968) is among the few of his generation’s jazz musicians who have understood the importance of building on jazz traditions – not simply “playing the tradition,” but to be inspired by it and allow it to become an integral part of his sound. He is a saxophonist with a personal voice that exudes references but is also born of calmness and dignity, and he speaks a tonal language that is both progressive and anchored in tradition.

Jakob has also built up a remarkable résumé. He has played with a sea of stars, including Paul Motian, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Eddie Gomez, Ben Street, Tony Allen, Nasheet Waits, and Steve Swallow. He has performed and recorded everything from traditional jazz with the trombonist Ole “Fessor” Lindgren and mainstream jazz with bassist Hugo Rasmussen to close collaborations with the unabashedly contemporary guitarist Jakob Bro. He has also made a name for himself as a composer and bandleader in his work with his own groups and collaborations. Always hungry for fresh sounds from new places, he’s travelled the world with his saxophone. Despite never resting on his laurels, he has received virtually every prize and award possible in Denmark, and has released a slew of albums in his own name on Stunt Records in addition to YASMIN, including EVERYTHING WILL BE ALL RIGHT (2002) with Kurt Rosenwinkel, LADY WITH A SECRET (2005) with Eddie Gomez, ONE KISS TO MANY (2007) with Ben Street, Jakob Bro, and Nasheet Waits, DINO (2007) with Paul Motian, and the Cuban-inspired ENAMORADO EN COPENHAGUE (2011).

Jakob Dinesen is one of the most essential and versatile jazz musicians in Denmark – almost hyperactive at times, always in demand, and with his horn never far from his side. It’s only natural, then, that he has become the player tasked with reviving the role of the great ballad interpreter. His agile and expressive saxophone playing, paired with an ear-tickling rhythm section, a string quartet, or the otherworldly sonics from keyboards, makes Jakob Dinesen’s KEYS & STRINGS an exquisite listening experience.

muzycy:
Jakob Dinesen: tenor saxophone
Carsten Dahl: piano, percussion, string arrangement
Heine Hansen: piano, string arrangement
Darin Pantoomkomol: piano
Magnus Hjorth: piano, string arrangement
Nikolaj Torp Larsen: keyboards & effects, string arrangement
Anders Christensen: bass
Morten Aro: drums
Jakob Hoyer: drums

String quartet:
Andrea Gyarfas, Karen Johanne Pedersen (violins)
Sidsel Feher Most (viola)
Samira Dayyani (cello)

Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra

utwory:
CD1:
1. Homely
2. Hope
3. Thaya
4. Smuk
5. Hugso
6. Free Eddie
7. Konge og Bajads
8. First One

CD2:
1. Spring Is Here
2. Milton
3. Nicolai Smuk
4. God Bless The child
5. Charlie Haden’s Sound Of Love
6. Dance on Roses
7. Everything Happens to Me

wydano: 2019-05
more info: www.sundance.dk