Jazzfest Berlin 2024: Bromander Unfolding Orchestra // Crispell // Decoy

On the 2023 debut recording by his orchestra his music tapped into the spiritual jazz era, but the presence of Indian dhrupad isn’t a gimmick. The composer enlisted mentor Marianne Svašek to sing on the title piece, and his embrace of rigour and authenticity extends to how he arranged his music for the stellar 13-piece band, inspired by the sound of Carla Bley and Charlie Haden, while forging a modern protest music for our time.

 

The ensemble is built from Stockholm’s thriving jazz and improvised music scene including veterans like baritone saxophonist Alberto Pinton, saxophonist Martin Küchen and bass clarinetist Christer Bothén, a trusted collaborator of Don Cherry and Bengt Berger.

The masterfully designed three-movement recording “In This Forever Unfolding Moment” finds common cause between Indian classical drones, Swedish folk themes and searing free jazz.

It transmits deeply soulful melodies with an orchestra depth that accommodates extended solos and internal interplay of lapidary detail, whether the active churn of twin drummers Dennis Egberth and Anton Jonsson or the chordal shimmer of pianist Alex Zethson and vibraphonist Mattias Ståhl.

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Opening speech by George Lewis

George Lewis, the erudite trombonist, composer, educator, historian and a previous performer of Jazzfest Berlin, will provide an invaluable perspective of the festival’s place in the music’s history, and as anyone who’s heard him speak already knows, his analysis is always lively and trenchant, outlining connections and relationships that have been often overlooked.

 

Since emerging in the late 1970s pianist Marilyn Crispell has been one of the most versatile, sensitive and imaginative improvisers in jazz, a musician who has authoritatively bridged the divide between feverish free improvisation and post-Coltrane. On her own and through fruitful partnerships with the likes of Anthony Braxton, Paul Motian and Reggie Workman, among others, she’s deftly adapted to context while remaining true to her rhapsodic sensibilities. 

 

Her participation in Joe Lovano’s Trio Tapestry, which performs on festival Friday, has exposed her playing to a new generation of listeners taken with her ability to push outward from post-bop fundamentals. But here she gives a rare solo performance, a context where her music can go any direction. That means the music can veer from a hushed lyricism, billowing with harmonic richness, to bruising motific elaboration threading a gauntlet of white-knuckle clusters and multi-layered propulsion. 

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Marilyn Crispell – piano

Decoy with Joe McPhee (GB, IE, US)

Joe McPhee, who turns 85 a few days after this year’s Jazzfest Berlin, has remained one of the most committed seekers in jazz history. While his pioneering early work – for the example the off-kilter revolutionary free jazz funkyness of “Nation Time” – or the searingly beautiful solo explorations of “Tenor” established his talent, his art has only grown more powerful and essential over time.

While he never stopped playing, he experienced a thrilling rediscovering in the mid-1990s when a new generation of improvisers celebrated his unstoppable energy and innovation, leading to long-term connections to players like Mats Gustafsson, Ken Vandermark, Hamid Drake and the late Peter Brötzmann, becoming a guiding light in his legendary Chicago Tentet.

 

Among his most potent partnerships in the 21st century has been with the malleable British trio Decoy, featuring drummer Steve Noble, bassist John Edwards and keyboardist Alexander Hawkins, who unleashes the soulful grit of the Hammond B3 organ rather than his usual piano. McPhee – that rare type of person who doubles on trumpet and saxophones – rides the trio’s elastic grooves, free jazz onslaughts and tender balladry with total conviction and authority, drawing upon the music’s deep history to forge each statement with humanism, humility and wit.

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