Friends and Neighbors w/Brandon Lopez @ Shapeshifter Lab, Brooklyn on April 2, 2019

Friends and Neighbors

By Eric Stern

Friends and Neighbors have been around since 2011. They have issued four records, the last three of which were on the Clean Feed label. Each of these players is involved in other groups, including Albatrosh, The Way Ahead, All Included, Cortex, Universal Indians, and Paal Nilssen-Love's Large Unit. As such, they are at the center of a wide group of projects that have helped to showcase Norway's dynamic jazz scene.

As musicians this five piece group has chops to spare. You have to look carefully or you might miss some pretty magical playing, such as pianist Oscar Grönberg's demonstrating his cross-hands technique without making any obvious show of it.

For me, one of the joys of listening to this group is when saxophonist André Roligheten and trumpeter Thomas Johannson play a hard bop style line in unison. It reminds me of Kenny Dorham and Ernie Henry's work on Two Horns, Two Rhythm. This evening's performance was a mixture of the cutting edge with a strong knowledge of jazz history. Should you so choose, you could even ignore the modern touches and extended techniques and view this as a more traditional group. At one point the band quoted the song 'Autumn in New York' as if to underline this point.

This is a group that plays tunes which have heads and melodies which you could hum. Watching them you realize that these are players so adept at their craft that the results seem effortless. I am very glad I went and strongly suggest you keep your eyes peeled for any of the projects which feature these players. We are fortunate that they travel worldwide so that many audiences can enjoy their craftsmanship.

Brandon Lopez

The opener, Brandon Lopez, gave a really interesting performance where he displayed several modes of playing bass that seemed unique and innovative. At one point he used the handle of his bow to agitate the strings in such a way as to create sounds more akin to those generated by a computer. Having seen him a number of times, it was a pleasant surprise to discover new sides to his playing. Performances like this one clearly demonstrate the musician's great facility on his instrument. It will be fun to watch future performances and see where he takes his impressive gifts.