A Series of Shorts – The Deciders
By Ken Pickering – Artistic Director / Co-founder
June 17, 2014
Twitter: ken_pickering
Blog: http://vanjazzfest.blogspot.ca/
Even though this quintet made my top picks list there’s just a little bit more that needs to be said about these guys. This is one fantastic band - each and every musician has attained leadership status in their own right and their collective credits astound. They’ve performed with Europe’s finest over the past decade and more. The Deciders are decidedly a new European modern-jazz ensemble. Their musical approach is rooted in the American avant-garde of the 60’s (Ayler, Shepp, Cherry), while also encapsulating the collective improvisation of early jazz and the innovative language extensions of European free improvisers from the late 60’s onwards. Recognizably jazz their standard quintet format sound is unlike any other jazz ensemble I can think of on today’s scene. Here they are (long clip at 20 minutes) live at Victoria Nasjonal Jazz Scene Oslo.
From three countries:
Norway’s Ole Morten Vagan – bass (Motif, Havard Wiik, Bugge Wesseltoft, Terje Rypdal) - a rock solid anchor, he excels in a Mingus like role in this band. A bassist to watch out for – this guy makes things happen. What Turned You Onto Jazz - Video
Two Swedes, Jon Fålt – drums (Bobo Stenson, Anders Jormin, Alberto Pinton), Fredrik Ljungkvist - saxophone, clarinet (Atomic, Yun Kan 5, Per Texas Johnansson, Ken Vandermark). Jon Fålt is one of the most interesting young multi-directional drummers on the scene – at the same time - loose, flexible and precise, his touch is delicate and poetic but not without power when necessary, a rising drum star. I can’t say enough about Fredrik Ljungkvist – but in the interest of brevity, I’ll just say that he’s one of my favourite tenor saxophonists and musicians - any project that he’s involved with is one that I need to hear.
Two Germans complete the quintet, Rudi Mahall – clarinets (Monk’s Casino, Globe Unity, Aki Takase) and Axel Dörner – trumpet (Fred van Hove, Otomo Yoshihide, Ig Henneman). To me the bass clarinet (his primary axe) of Rudi Mahall is one of the keys to their unique sound. He brings an unusual timbre to the front line and is perhaps the loudest bass clarinet player I’ve ever heard - but never at a disservice to the music, Rudi's a virtuoso that listens hard and never overplays. In this context Axel Dorner’s methods are somewhat more conventional than much of his ouvre – although best known for his microtonal chamber work in lower case or minimal formats - with the Deciders he expands on those elements, opening them up to a grander dramatic expression that fits well in this maximalist jazz context.
Rudi and Axel
Although I still haven’t caught the Deciders in a live performance, I’ve witnessed all of the players in various constellations (as the Europeans say) over the past decade. Ole Morten was the recipient of an award from the Kongsberg Festival that enabled him to create this special lineup and compose new music for them to perform. Rainbow Robert (our Manager of Artistic Programming) was fortunate to hear them shortly afterwards at NattJazz 2011 in Bergen, Norway and came back raving. Was I jealous? Damn right I was – but I was very happy to have some trusted eyes and ears on the case - and that at least one of us got to hear the band live. The lineup (then called Kongsberg 5) was so enticing that I immediately began discussions with bassist Ole Morten Vagan that would eventually lead to their first Canadian tour 3 years later! Now they finally have an album out on Jazzland – We Travel the Airwaves. Review and video One of the most exciting new bands in Europe – a rare opportunity to catch them at The Ironworks - Wednesday, June 26 - 9pm.
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