Long one of the most influential of Scandinavian jazz musicians, Bobo Stenson was amongst the first ECM artists. His recordings with Jan Garbarek in the 1970s were recently reissued as the boxed set “Dansere”. He has played on important ECM discs with Don Cherry, Charles Lloyd, and Tomasz Stanko and made his first recording as piano trio leader for the label in 1971. The Stenson trio has gone through a number of permutations since then, with former personnel including bassists Arild Andersen...
Read MoreLong one of the most influential of Scandinavian jazz musicians, Bobo Stenson was amongst the first ECM artists. His recordings with Jan Garbarek in the 1970s were recently reissued as the boxed set “Dansere”. He has played on important ECM discs with Don Cherry, Charles Lloyd, and Tomasz Stanko and made his first recording as piano trio leader for the label in 1971. The Stenson trio has gone through a number of permutations since then, with former personnel including bassists Arild Andersen and Palle Danielsson and drummers Jon Christensen and Paul Motian, distinguished players all. In the current trio with Jormin and Fält, whose line-up has been consistent since 2004, there is a balance of energies – clear-edged lyrical piano playing, rootedness and keen choice of notes from the bass, and detailed, textural drumming – that is especially satisfying.
Few contemporary jazz groups sustain an atmosphere as evocatively as Swedish pianist Stenson’s trio, or conjure so many moods across a variety of material” wrote John Fordham, reviewing “Cantando” in The Guardian. “Nothing, from a steaming postbop line to a stroked cymbal-edge or a sitar-like bass phrase, suggests a hint of an accidental sound – yet somehow the music never dims the glow of spontaneity.”
The musicians share an eagerness to play and the dynamics of the free/rhythmic understanding between Anders Jormin and Jon Fält have latterly been explored also in Jormin’s own groups, as on the “Ad Lucem” album, released earlier this year.
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