GARD NILSSEN — Gard Nilssen's Acoustic Unity : Firehouse (review)

GARD NILSSEN — Gard Nilssen's Acoustic Unity : Firehouse album cover Album · 2015 · Avant-Garde Jazz Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
snobb
During the last decade, about a dozen capable drummers made their name by recording ambitious albums playing jazz with an accent on composition, complex arrangements and including elements of contemporary non-jazz music. Tyshawn Sorey and John Hollenbeck are just two to be mentioned among others. Almost intuitively, from every new jazz album recorded by a collective led by the drummer, one can expect jazz based on modern composition first of all.

Norwegian drummer Gard Nilssen Acoustic Unity's "Firehouse" is different. A traditional acoustic trio with Swede, double bassist Petter Eldh and Norwegian sax player Andre Roligheten plays free jazz, coming right from the times half a century ago.

"Firehouse" is without a doubt a drummer's album. Nilssen, who is known for his work with Puma and Cortex bands, plays dense, knotty, and often fast high-energy jazz, with a lot of tuneful sax soloing over it. At their hottest moments, Acoustic Unity recalls the other Nordic trio, The Thing. On the other hand, the sax player and the bassist both are noticeably bop-influenced, so there is a lot of music sounding very much as if it comes from the free-boppers of the late 70s or early 70s.

Same way as decades ago, music of such kind is attractive mostly because of its freedom, telepathic interplay, and some organic freshness coming from jazz roots.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Jazz Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

JMA TOP 5 Jazz ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
A Love Supreme Post Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners
Kind of Blue Cool Jazz
MILES DAVIS
Buy this album from our partners
The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady Progressive Big Band
CHARLES MINGUS
Buy this album from our partners
Blue Train Hard Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners
My Favorite Things Hard Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners

New Jazz Artists

New Jazz Releases

Cabaret Eclectic Fusion
MARIUS NESET
Buy this album from MMA partners
Living Ghosts Post-Fusion Contemporary
MICHAEL WOLLNY
Buy this album from MMA partners
Live at Donte's, Vol. 1 Vocal Jazz
MIKE CAMPBELL
Buy this album from MMA partners
Sunday Afternoon Fusion
FURIO DI CASTRI
Buy this album from MMA partners
São Paulo Creative 4 : Supernova Avant-Garde Jazz
IVO PERELMAN
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Jazz Online Videos

Sunday afternoon
FURIO DI CASTRI
snobb· 3 hours ago
Harmônicos
FABIANO DO NASCIMENTO
js· 18 hours ago
Con Alma
GENE BERTONCINI
js· 21 hours ago
Our Walk (Live)
BEN MARKLEY
js· 21 hours ago
Solar (feat. Vicente Archer & Otis Brown III)
JERRY LÉONIDE
js· 1 day ago
More videos

New JMA Jazz Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Jazz News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed