Norwegian jazz from a seven-piece group led by Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, the bass player. Actually the full name of the combo is Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (Exit) Knarr for reasons that aren’t immediately obvious to me, but Flaten’s been steering this lifeboat since 2020 and the heady days of the Vossa Jazz festival where he evidently created quite a stir in the muffins.
Breezy (SONIC TRANSMISSIONS RECORDS STRLP25) features some very able playing from Mette Rasmussen, Karl Hjalmar Nyberg, Erik Kimestad Pedersen, Oscar Grönberg and others, plus guests Oddrun Lilja Jonsdottir and Joakim Rainer Petersen, who adds synth on two cuts. The record is evidence of friendly collaborations with close friends over about thirty years, and what mostly comes across is warmth and empathy between these fellow humans. I prefer the lively excursions such as ‘Free The Jazz’, which isn’t so much a platform for boring old take-a-solo conventions, as a joyful all-sound-together explosion full of colour and vitality. You may prefer ‘Hilma’, which starts out reflective and introverted (a walk in the solemn landscapes of Norway, hopefully) before switching to an up-tempo party where the metallic guitar inventions of Jonathan F. Horne add a dash of acidic craziness to the punch. ‘Breezy’, the title track, likewise commences with the sort of melancholic instrumental wistfulness which seems to haunt much Norwegian jazz and music on the Hubro label, before picking up a touch of the Miles Davis small-combo energy.
Vinyl edition also available. (23/09/2024)