Midweek pick, September 25th, 2024: Gjerstad Trio's Unknown Purposes

Frode Gjerstad Trio: Unknown Purposes (Circulasione Totale)

Frode Gjerstad: alto saxophone, Bb clarinet
Jon Rune Strøm: double bass
Paal Nilssen-Love: drums

Lifelong free wheeling Norwegian reed master Frode Gjerstad’s first dive into the realm of the saxophone, bass and drums trio originally wasn’t intended as such. While the group Detail was indeed first formed as a different kind of trio with keyboardist and pianist Eivind One Pedersen and drummer John Stevens, South African double bassist Johnny Dyani had joined not long after. But not long before the group was to enter the studio in 1982 to record their first official albums, Pedersen left. The saxophonist, bassist and drummer ventured on and recorded two sessions as as a trio, later released as Backwards And Forwards / Forwards And Backwards (Impetus Records, 1983) and the even better Okhela « To Make A Fire » (Affinity, 1984).

Since then, the sax, bass and drums trio has been one of Gjerstad’s main outlets. The most famous, arguably, is his trio with bassist William Parker and drummer Hamid Drake, most of whose recordings were reissued as a 4 CD set by NotTwo in 2017 as Frode Gjerstad with Hamid Drake and William Parker.

Since around 2011, though, the Gjerstad trio has consisted of double bassist Jon Rune Strøm and drummer Paal Nilssen-Love. Their most recent recording is Unknown Purposes, a thrilling album that showcases the trio at their very best. Both Strøm and Nilssen-Love are masterful at combining power and elasticity, simultaneously complementing and pushing their older compatriot’s swirling, leaping, searching and crying tones. The three move from carefully prodding to headlong burst with great exhilaration. Perhaps no more so than on the excellent “Cracked Bleeding Feet”, where Strøm’s bass first growls and snarls, sounds he eventually molds and twists into something undeniably funky yet still free feeling, Nilssen-Love moving equally swift from tripping taps into a loose swing feel, while Gjerstad expresses great excitement on the alto.