Midweek pick, March 27th, 2024: Snidero's delightfully laid back standards session
Jim Snidero: For All We Know (Savant)
Jim Snidero: alto saxophone
Peter Washington: double bass
Joe Farnsworth: drums
This past weekend, while most people on my social media time lines seemed to be at the Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, Tennessee, I went to the Vossa Jazz Festival, which has been held in Vossevangen, Voss, since 1974 (although founded in 1973). Much smaller in scale than Big Ears, but no less artistically ambitious in its programming, often centered around seeking common ground between jazz idioms, folk music and ethnic music from around the globe. This year, I was lucky to experience mind blowing concerts by, among others, Emmeluth’s Amoeba, David Murray/Ingebrigt Håker Flaten/Paal Nilssen-Love, William Parker’s Mayan Space Station and Ole Morten Vågan Mirror Image, to mention only a few. I’m in the process of finalizing my report from that weekend for Musikkmagasinet, and may post translated snippets from that after it’s been published in the papaer edition.
In any case, in an attempt to wind down after such energetic, I decided to listen to alto saxophonist Jim Snidero’s For All We Know. An album that has been out for about a month already, but one I hadn’t really found to time digest fully yet. It fit the mood perfectly on the train back to Oslo. Snidero has picked a handful of standards, among them the title track, “Love For Sale”, “Willow Weep For Me”, and John Coltrane’s “Naima”, and decided to play them in a saxophone, bass and drums format. This has resulted in some assured yet also delightfully relaxed interpretations, with the trio’s take on Coltrane’s “Naima” a favorite. Well worth a listen. The album is available via Presto Music, among other places, as well as on streaming services like Qobuz.