Tracks
1.Garden Of Sounds 2.Everyday 3.Kids Playing 4.Guided From Within 5.I Loves You Porgy 6.Birds Flying Suite I – Part 1 7.Birds Flying Suite I – Part 2 8.Birds Flying Suite I – Part 3 9.Memories Of Summer 10.Quiet View 11.Receiving 12.Clear Seeing 3.A Rare Italian Bird 14.Moving Memories 15.Birds Flying Suite II – Part 1 16.Birds Flying Suite II – Part 2 17.Birds Flying Suite II – Part 3 18.Birds Flying Suite II – Part 4
Interpreters
Lars Jansson – piano, organ
Thomas Agergaard – saxophones, alto flute
Record label: Arts
Recorded in March and April 2022 at Millfactory.
Posted June 2, 2023
Lars Jansson is a Swedish jazz pianist and composer. He grew up in Örebro, Sweden, where his lessons at the community music school bored him. When he was a teenager, a relative lent him records by Miles Davis, Ben Webster and Mose Allison. During the 1960s listening to Jimmy Smith and Jack McDuff among others, he developed an interest in the organ. He ended up in dental school, but after a year and a half he decided to switch to music. At the Göteborg College of Music he had the opportunity to play with Ove Johansson, Jan Forslund, Conny Sjökvist, Gilbert Holmström and Gunnar Lindgren among others, and discovered Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, Paul Bley, Bill Evans, Lennie Tristano, Keith Jarrett and Chick Korea.
Tomas Agergaard is a Danish saxophonist, flutist and composer. He plays with a Nordic sound, but with an American tradition with influences ranging from John Coltrane, Wayne Shorter through Jan Garbarek to Stan Getz and Ben Webster among others. Agergaard is in a constant state of creative transformation.
Both musicians are significant and influential figures in Scandinavian jazz (and should be on a more international level).
With this work they pay tribute to some of their greatest influences, such as Wayne Shorter, John Cage, Keith Jarrett, Charlie Haden, Duke Ellington and George Gershwin.
The album opens with the title track “Garden of Sounds,” Jansson’s personal tribute to John Cage and what he meant for music, dance and other arts.
“Everyday”, a composition by Agergaard that is a tribute to the quiet moments of everyday life. After writing it, Agergaard discovered that it was very close to Shorter’s universe.
“Kids Playing” by Jansson describes the innocence and freedom found in children, and which are lost with age.
It is followed by another composition by Jansson, “Guided From Within”, which leads us to reflect on the importance of being patient, of waiting for the right moment. Listen to your interior, physically and psychologically.
We have four songs from the album and the peace transmitted by them is total.
The only piece not composed by them is “I Loves You Porgy,” George Gershwin’s love ballad. Agergaard’s performance was originally inspired by Keith Jarret’s simple and heartfelt recording of the song. Agergaard strives for the same simplicity and emphasizes the importance of saying more with less. “I see Bess really in love kneeling in front of Porgy. At the same time music also has its own direction. We must follow what we hear. “Music is the ”art of the present,” and I try to aim for a kind of Zen, pure and surrendered to where the music will flow, in a creative unity,” says Agergaard. Beautiful version.
The album includes two suites “Birds Flying Suite I” and “Birds Flying Suite II” divided into three and four parts respectively. They are composed by both performers. They had never immersed themselves in this type of compositions or interpretations, being pleasantly surprised after seeing the result obtained.
The suites break with the scenario set out by the rest of the songs that make up the album but it is not a problem, even though they are radically different, they do not break the harmonic listening as a whole.
After the first suite comes “Memories of Summer”, written by Agergaard on a summer morning. “The song came to me as easily and unhurriedly as a summer breeze. Unpacking the saxophone, the melody was there in the room. With the simplicity of just remembering past summers, but also with a melancholy inherent to the passage of time and past memories,” says Agergaard. The melody was written in Lundsgaard Gods after a concert.
Agergaard’s “Quiet View” is inspired by the Charlie Haden composition “Silence,” which Agergaard first heard as a young man on Keith Jarret’s album “Bop-be.” In this regard he says: “small glimpses of that song have always lived inside me. The song isn’t exactly a chorus, but it has the feeling and atmosphere of one. Playing a simple melody can be as difficult as playing something very complex or virtuosic.”
The compositions alternate; Now it’s Jansson’s turn with “Receiving”. A beautiful song where Agergaard’s flute shines with its own light. Jansson describes it like this: “A kind of psalm with a harmonized singable melody. The solos are open from a single chord.”
“Clear Seeing” also by Jansson, a song about not having preconceived ideas, without prejudices. According to Jansson: “A song played in unison, with a chord that gives it a special color, and then an open solo on a single chord with a strong rhythmic groove.” The most jazzy song on the album. Great jazz.
A third composition by Jansson is “A Rare Italian Bird,” which is a heartfelt tribute to the Italian clarinetist and ornithologist Gabriele Mirabassi, for whom the best moments in life were playing the music of John Cage. Agergaard again on the flute.
Before the second part of the suite “Bird Flying Suite”, we can enjoy a composition by Agergaard titled “Moving Memories” clearly inspired by Ellington. A slow, movie-like theme that encourages you to reconsider.
The mutual admiration is evident and this is transmitted to their music. Agergaard says: “Lars creates a very relaxed atmosphere because his rhythmic base is very strong. It’s really great to create music with a musician like that.” And Jansson responds: “Agergaard has an open mind and a great presence, which makes his musical creation vivid and exciting.”
The recording is very good and allows you to hear and enjoy each of the instruments.
Very good album to enjoy and reflect on.
La Habitación del Jazz