Midweek pick, October 24th, 2024: Nacka Forum's (not quite so) peaceful (not really) piano.
Nacka Forum: Peaceful Piano (Moserobie Music Productions)
Jonas Kullhammar: Sopranino, Soprano, Tenor and Bass saxophone, Tarogato, Clarinet, Contrabass Clarinet, Piccolo Flute, Recorder, Slide Whistle & Percussion
Goran Kajfes: Trumpet, Crumar EVI, Syntrx 2, Congas & Percussion
Johan Berthling: Double Bass
Kresten Osgood: Drums, Piano, Marimba & Percussion
Special guest on “Saxnäs Superman” and “LG's Lament”: Lars-Göran Ulander - Alto Saxophone
Named after a shopping centre in greater Stockholm, Nacka Forum is a Sweidsh-Danish quartet consisting of Jonas Kullhammar (primarily reeds and flutes), Goran Kajfes (trumpet and various instruments), Johan Bertling, and Kresten Osgood (drums and percussion plus various instruments). All four significant contributors to the Scandinavian jazz scene and beyond for the past 20 plus years, with Bertling perhaps the best known internationally through his work i Fire! and Fire! Orchestra.
Juxtapositions of the earnest and playful, even mischievous, have been notable aspects through the careers of Kullhammar, who also runs the Moserobie Music Production Label, and Osgood in particular, and such elements come into play in Nacka Forum as well. It’s right there in the title and the cover of their latest release, Peaceful Piano, the cover image depicting a construction worker wielding a jack hammer.
Of course, there’s hardly any piano on the album at all, and the music is many things, but peaceful is not really one of them. Beauty, though, most definitely is. Such as the gorgeous ballad “Grønland”, and the stirring start of “Jemeel”, which, of course, the quartet eventually mold into a groovy journey for increasingly daring and scorching solos.
Other highlights include the hard-bop-ish themes and interplay of the openers “Graden På Moset” and “A Crank of Mu”, the catchy, noir-like, percussion driven bounce of “Othello”, and “Saxnäs Superman”, which starts off like a blues inspired dirge, but soon begins to to flow and flutter much more freely during the solos.