Cross-Atlantic Straddling
Simon Jermyn, Adrian Myhr Trio, Sullivan Fortner
I’m posting this week’s newsletter from the airport in Philadelphia, as I prepare to board a flight to Chicago. Frequency Festival—the contemporary and experimental music gathering I organize—kicks off Tuesday, February 18 at Constellation. I’m really excited about this year’s line-up, which you can see here. If you’re in Chicago I’d be thrilled if you considered coming out to some of the performances, which include an array of Chicago, US, and international premiers. It’s going to be a busy week in the arctic cold of the city, so it will be a couple of weeks until the next installment of Nowhere Street. The recommended shows list below covers two weeks. Readers more astute than me may have noticed that I erroneously included that list in last week’s transmission until I caught the error a couple of days later—apologies for the screw-up.
The Dry Funk in Simon Jermyn’s Ultra-Taut Post-Bop Grooves
Simon Jermyn, a guitarist and bassist from Ireland who currently splits his time between Berlin and New York, celebrates the release of his pleasing new album with a quartet he calls Obsany on Saturday, February 22 at Sowieso. The band name is an imaginary word that came to him in a dream. He assembled a killer Berlin-based ensemble that nails his strain of funked-up post-bop, where intricate patterns slalom through stuttering grooves with breathless precision. Driven by the rhythm section of drummer Lukas Akintaya and electric bassist Petter Eldh, Jermyn shares frontline duties with tenor saxophonist Otis Sandsjö, who works closely with Eldh in Y-Otis. Those kinds of connections seems integral to finessing the tight-knit sounds on Obsany’s eponymous debut for the Elastic Recordings, a label based in Toronto, Canada. It officially sees release soon on February 28, but I imagine the band will have copies on hand at the show.
Jermyn’s music transmits a thoroughly modern vibe where rock, funk, Afrobeat and hip-hop undergird much of the action. His music both toggles between and collides a kind of smokey ambience and post-bop improvisation, depending on the track. The brief opening tune “Phobos” leans into ambient turf, setting the tone for what follows, with a focus on mood rather than improvisation, a tactic revisited on the more turbulent “Celestial Mechanics,” the album’s mid-point. The patterns he sculpts with the rhythm section reveal his deep experience as a bassist. Although he’s an adept soloist, his devotion to building head-nodding themes feels more essential to the band’s music, even on the most tuneful excursions like “Horsey Verdant,” where the loose-limbed shuffle highlights his richly melodic sensibility, deftly shadowed by Sandsjö’s gift for gently embroidering the theme with asides and harmonies that drift in and out of register.
In fact, even though all of the tracks feature tightly-coiled solos, this band isn’t focused on extended improvisation as much as it’s interested in pushing and pulling against the grain of Jermyn’s indelible writing. Three of the tracks are enhanced by the presence of saxophonist fellow New York/Berlin time-splitter Michaël Attias, who thickens up the melodic matter and adds elegant, weightless harmonic interaction with the frontline. As you can hear below on “New November” there’s often a flinty energy on display, with a taut groove that seamlessly shifts between tempos—Eldh and Akintaya dig into the rhythmic patterns like deconstructionists, making the changes and polyrhythmic details seem effortless despite an obvious complexity. Sandsjö and Jermyn feed on that sense of motion, fueling a liquid ease that seems able to float atop the foundation of their partners, riding it like a pair of surfers slashing in and out of the propulsive force of a wave.
The Quiet, Folky Force of Adrian Myhr
Norwegian bassist Adrian Myhr has been a model of harmonic support and collective invention across a broad swath of his homeland music’s scene for decades, increasingly straddling jazz, folk, and experimental music in a way that mirrors a growing openness between those practices in Norway. Over the last decade I’ve heard him in numerous contexts, but I didn’t really begin to notice his own aesthetic priorities until I heard him perform with Oker, a fantastic quartet that leans toward a minimalist, experimental sound. The group also includes the harmonically inquisitive guitarist Fredrik Rasten, shape-shifting trumpeter Torstein Lavik Larsen, and impressively subtle drummer Jan Martin Gismervik. I’ve also appreciated his role in Hardanger fiddler Helga Myhr’s Andsyning project, which is rooted in Norwegian folk, but routinely spills outside the lines of trad orthodoxy. He’s a key presence in the elegant, stately piano trio led by Johan Lindvall, too. There are loads of other projects he’s been involved in, but suffice to say he’s an admirable team player who deploys his warm tone and precise articulation in service on ensemble approaches.
Last fall he stepped out more explicitly with a couple of recordings under his own name, including Sing Nightingale (Mappa), an intimate collaboration with his partner, the percussionist Michaela Antalová, that inhabits a variety of folk traditions within and beyond Scandinavia. But the record that’s most germane to this week’s newsletter is Kokong (Øra Fonogram) by the same trio that will make its Berlin debut at KM28 on Wednesday, February 19. The trio includes Gismervik on percussion and Rasmus Kjorstad on violin and langeleik, the arresting Norwegian box zither. The latter musician is the brother of another amazing fiddler, Hans Kjorstad, who runs Motvind Records and plays with Marthe Lea and Andreas Røysum in multiple contexts. Rasmus is deeply ensconced in folk traditions, but he’s no purist. He plays in rock bands like Morgonrode and Reolô, the latter of which includes his brother and drummer Hans Hulbækmo.
The music on Kokong is subtle and it took a few listens for me to fully appreciate the intimate connections occurring within the music, which routinely elides any specific tradition. “Begnynnelse,” the album’s opening track is a levitating meditation built around Myhr’s arco playing, as Martin lays down a rich harmonium drone and Kjorstad weaves in and around the bass patterns on violin. In a certain sense not much happens, but the interaction between the string players establishes a heightened sensitivity that gains resonance the more I’ve listened, with both of them operating within a tight intervallic range that makes each motion feel profound. Gismervik sticks to harmonium on the following tune, “Spirer,” too, while Myhr’s pizz lines impart a comparative drive, a kind of muted danced rhythm around which Kjorstad also solos. Halfway through the harmonium shifts from long tones to the same melodic scheme of the other two, thrusting it into more explicitly into folk terrain. Below you can hear “Svale Skygger,” one of my favorite pieces on the album, where the drummer toggles between what he calls a “hanging vibraphone” and quiet little percussive patterns that lend a chamber feel to the pretty unison lines plucked on bass and violin. The album eschews bald virtuosity in favor of a group interplay that’s ultimately more rewarding and no less demanding on the part of the musicians. Gismervik and Kjorstad will each play solo sets in addition to the trio performance.
Sullivan Fortner Makes It Seem Easy
New Orleans pianist Sullivan Fortner is a paragon when it comes to an ultra-malleable strain of mainstream jazz. He’s a font of traditional knowledge that spans the music's entire history while extending fluency into the continuum of R&B. Few working musicians are so dazzling at remaking a standard language, and the way he tackles his broad repertoire treats each piece like a cross between a jigsaw puzzle and a game of strategy. Sullivan takes apart familiar forms, often bar to bar, drawing from an ability to modulate or utterly change time, feel, phrasing, attack, harmony, you name it, in a split second. The sheer virtuosity is shaded by just how good it all feels, as all of the technique is presided over by deep musicality.
Last week Fortner released Southern Nights (Artwork), a fantastic new trio album with bassist Peter Washington and drummer Marcus Gilmore. The last-minute session occurred following a week-long run at the Village Vanguard, where the trio had gathered for the first time ever. A younger, dumber version of myself would’ve likely skipped over this album because it all felt too conventional in its fidelity to bebop sensibilities, but the way Fortner operates within that tradition doesn’t feel remotely predictable. There is a mainstream glaze, but the way the pianist dissects the vocabulary makes it seem like he’s inventing a new tongue. The band certainly helps achieve this brilliance, particularly Gilmore who actively inverts and contorts the swing rhythms in a manner that runs parallel to what the pianist is doing. The groove has primacy, and Gilmore never releases a driving pulse, but while one hand’s on the wheel the other is juggling knives. Washington holds down an imperturbable center while quietly but effectively injecting thorns, knots, and hiccups into the flow. It’s a master class that celebrates jazz’s essence; invention and reinvention rather than glib mastery.
Of course, part of that aesthetic is endemic to Sullivan’s hometown, and the title track opens the album with a fizzy account of the Allen Toussaint classic. New Orleans is one of America’s great melting pots, and that stylistic diversity adds to a spontaneously wielded color wheel. The album includes jazz standards like “Daahoud” and “I Love You,” but Fortner and crew also tackle deeper cuts from Woody Shaw and Bill Lee (“Again, Never,” the tender ballad Branford Marsalis played in Mo’ Better Blues), along with “Tres Palabras,” the Cuban ballad famously recorded by Nat “King” Cole. Still, the title track conveys the album’s spirit most joyfully, even if it’s the most removed from jazz. It’s a song I first heard through the hit 1977 Glen Campbell cover, but the Fortner version both honors the Toussaint recording and carves out its own kaleidoscopic identity, from the inside piano harp scrapes that initiate the performance to the almost sweet-toned sparkle of the bouncy melody line, restlessly dancing with ever-changing left-handed patterns. Gilmore implies a second-line strut tattooed by snapping polyrhythmic figures, but it’s Fortner that magnetizes me. Check it out below. The pianist returns to Berlin this week, playing Zig-Zag Jazz Club on Sunday, February 23. He leads a strong-looking trio with drummer Kayvon Gordon and bassist Tyrone Allen.
Recommended Shows in Berlin for the Next Two Weeks
February 19: Laetitia Sadier; Pink Shabab, 8 PM, Kantine am Berghain, Am Wriezener Bahnhof, 10243 Berlin
February 19: Chris Corsano, drums; Benjamin Whitehill, guitar, electronics, 8 PM, Richten25, Gerichtstraße 25, 13347 Berlin
February 19: Adrian Myhr Trio (Adrian Myhr, double bass, Rasmus Kjorstad, violin, langeleik, and Jan Martin Gismervik, drums, hanging vibraphone, harmonium), 8:30 PM, KM28, Karl Marx Straße 28, 12043 Berlin
February 19: Monk’s Casino (Rudi Mahall, bass clarinet, Alexander von Schlippenbach, piano, Jan Roder, double bass, Axel Dörner, trumpet, and Kasper Tom, drums), 8:30 PM, Jazz Club A-Trane, Bleibtreustraße 1, 10625 Berlin
February 20: Steve Gunn, 7:30 PM, Petersburg Art Space, Kaiserin-Augusta-Allee 101, 10553 Berlin, entrance in the courtyard, Aufgang II, 1 OG
February 20: Rieko Okuda and Aki Takase, four-handed piano, 8 PM, Richten25, Gerichtstraße 25, 13347 Berlin
February 20: Camila Nebbia , tenor saxophone, James Banner, double bass, and Max Andrzejewski, drums, 8:30 PM, Sowieso, Weisestraße 24, 12049 Berlin
February 20: Chris Corsano, drums, Tizia Zimmermann, accordion, and Chris Pitsiokos, alto saxophone, KM28, Karl Marx Straße 28, 12043 Berlin
February 20: Monk’s Casino (Rudi Mahall, bass clarinet, Alexander von Schlippenbach, piano, Jan Roder, double bass, Axel Dörner, trumpet, and Kasper Tom, drums), 8:30 PM, Jazz Club A-Trane, Bleibtreustraße 1, 10625 Berlin
February 22: Obsany (Simon Jermyn, electric guitar, Otis Sandsjö, tenor saxophone, Petter Eldh, electric bass, Lukas Akintaya, drums), 8:30 PM, Sowieso, Weisestraße 24, 12049 Berlin
February 23: Marta Warelis, piano, 7 PM, Luisenkirche, Gierkeplatz 4, 10585 Berlin
February 23: Sullivan Fortner Trio (Sullivan Fortner, piano, Tyrone Allen, double bass, and Kayvon Gordon, drums), 9 PM, Zig-Zag Jazz Club, Hauptstraße 89, 12159 Berlin
February 24: Dudù Kouate, percussion, and Ziv Taubenfeld, bass clarinet, perform a live soundtrack to Ousmane Sembène’s La Noire de..., 8 PM, Jugend[widerstands]museum, Galiläakirche, Rigaer Str. 9, 10247 Berlin
February 25: Alan Sparhawk; Circuit des Yeux, 8 PM, Lido, Cuvrystraße 7, 10997 Berlin
February 26: Berlin All Star Summit (Walter Gauchel, tenor saxophone, Rudi Mahall, bass clarinet, Alexander von Schlippenbach, piano, Jan Roder, double bass, and John Schröder, drums), 9 PM, Zig-Zag Jazz Club, Hauptstraße 89, 12159 Berlin
February 28: Thee Sacred Souls, 8 PM, Metropol, Nollendorfpl. 5, 10777 Berlin
February 28: The Weather Station, 8 PM, Kuppelhalle, Silent Green, Gerichtstraße 35, 13347 Berlin
February 28: Taiko Saito, vibraphone, Isabel Anders, piano, and Edward Perraud, drums, 8:30 PM, Sowieso, Weisestraße 24, 12049 Berlin
March 1: KNM Ensemble (Christopher Hobbs, Leonid Hrabovsky, Klaus Rinke, Volodymyr Zahortsev, Bumki Kim, Vitaliy Hodziatsky, Alla Zagaykevych and Wei-Chih Liu), 8 PM, Radialsystem V, Holzmarktstrasse 33, 10243 Berlin