Rob Price
Gutbrain Records
rob + gutbrain.com = email

2011 October 26 • Wednesday

There's still more interesting Swedish jazz!

The first sound you hear is hard to pin down. A quick glance at the back of the CD helps. Kullrusk is a quartet of Jonas Kullhammar on amplified clarinet and tenor sax, Per "Ruskträsk" Johansson on amplified clarinet and alto sax, Sven Lindvall on double bass and Martin Jonsson on drums.

The first tune, "Hellstone", takes advantage of the weird and unusual sonorities offered by amplified reed instruments. While one of them makes with the weird electro-blowing, the other does a sort of Big Science-like line. Then it goes into a more rocking, almost new wave direction. Effects are well deployed.

The second piece is Eddie Harris's "Children's Song", which is appropriate. If you're talking amplified sax then Eddie Harris has to be acknowledged. This is a lighter, more playful song, as the title suggests. It actually sounds a little bit like Paul Motian's quintet from the early 1980s, with the electrified reeds recalling both Frisell and Lovano.

"Indo" finds those reeds sounding very guitar-like in the beginning. Then the bass player kicks into a hard groove and the melody becomes part Masada, part bluesy swing. There's great playing all around and the two reed players show that they really know how to use their effects!

The fourth tune, "All That I Need", is a cover of a song by Swedish songwriter Jari Haapalainen. I think it was first performed by Heikki, Haapalainen's duo with Maria Eriksson. It's a very pretty, atmospheric tune, a refreshing change of pace from the more driving Kullrusk originals that precede it.

"He-Ma'm" has a somewhat funky groove and a sunny melody that builds in intensity just when you think it's going to keep on cruising smoothly along.

"Faidros" isa short feature for the bass, with Lindvall playing through some kind of effect that makes his upright sound like, I don't know, Eberhard Weber doing early-'70s Miles stuff or something.

It goes right into "Merguez", with Lindvall and Jonsson locked into a deep groove while the horns come in and play a cool, swirling melody line in unison. There's more fine soloing on this track.

Finally there's "Herkules", a pleasant tune reminiscent of some of Jimmy Giuffre but with a touch of Carla Bley and a touch of Sonny Rollins's Way Out West record.

This is their second record. I just got their first record in the mail and it's also really good!