It is hard to describe musical beauty, but this Swedish trio brings it in spades. On vibes we have Mattias Ståhl, on clarinet Fredrik Ljungkvist and Patric Thorman plays double bass.
I am not sure who "Tommy" is to whom the title refers, yet the references to the Jimmy Giuffre trio with Paul Bley and Steve Swallow are obvious, even if this trio plays it even lighter and softer. Ståhl and Thorman each composed half of the compositions which float freely around sweet themes which are either quick to stick in your memory or relatively abstract and hard to pin down, but despite the point of departure, the trio really moves as one, kindly, gently around the music, moving things forward in the most sensitive and lyrical way, refraining from generating volume, while at the same time keeping the overall melodiousness very high, subtly built around a wonderful sense of rhythm.
The vinyl LP was released a year ago, and it is a shame that I only review it now, and it is equally a shame that only 350 copies were made. It is one of those albums which will never figure on your list of "island picks", it is not spectacular enough for that, yet at the same time, it is also an album that you want to keep listening to, for its great musicianship, the incredibly close interplay, the coherence of the musical vision, and the sheer calm beauty of it. An unassuming album without any weaknesses.
Really nice, and worth looking for if there are still any copies left.
(Still) available at Instantjazz.
© stef
3 comments:
Would love to get this. there are copies still about but 35euro incl. postage is the cheapest I can find!
I understand, gets a bit expensive with the post. If you don't want to spend the money on the postage I think you can also get a digital copy.
I also looked at the p+p and wondered if I'd get a copy, or not.
i have a copy for sale
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