Given the depth of Jaga Jazzist's sophistication and their wide-ranging musical vision that encompasses everything from free jazz to hip-hop, from techno to funk, from rock to modern composition, this Norwegian ensemble is a natural partner for a collaboration with the internationally renowned Britten Sinfonia under the direction of Christian Eggen. The material was chosen from JJ's catalog (particularly from the One-Armed Bandit album, which they were touring in support of), and is beautifully arranged, performed, and recorded. While the lengthy treatment of "One-Armed Bandit" opens with strings, brass, and winds playing something that resembles a cadenza from one of the Sinfonia's namesake's symphonies, it quickly quiets down into the nearly pastoral for a few minutes before JJ enters with a persistent beat-head pulse, and the piece morphs into a symphonic, progressive jazz workout with a fantastic array of colors. The plucked strings and bass clarinet that introduce "Kitty Wu" set up a compelling juxtaposition that expands to include synths, loops, breaks, and a contrapuntal dialogue between electric guitars, brass, organic and synthetic rhythms, striding strings, and expansive winds. Not all of this gig works, however. At nearly 11 minutes, "Bananfluer Overalt" reveals surprisingly little in terms of contrast, dynamic, or adventure -- even with its killer rock guitar solo -- and "Toccata" says more about the Sinfonia than it does JJ; the winds shine brighter than the brass-heavy, Euro-big-band chart. Neither of these pieces is dull, it's just that the earlier part of the album creates great expectations. Thankfully, those are met on the set's last two pieces, the formidable rock and sonic effects fireworks that color the orchestra's pulsing energy on "Music! Dance! Drama!," and the beautifully articulated tonal and textural journey that transforms this reading of "Oslo Skyline." While Live with the Britten Sinfonia may be too formal to provide the wild, free-ranging ride that one might expect from this adventurous lot, it is dazzling in its own right and in almost all the right ways.
All Music
Norway's Jaga Jazzist has always been difficult to pigeonhole. Despite the word "jazz" in the nonet's moniker, its principle writer, multi-instrumentalist Lars Horntveth, has cited everyone from Steve Reich, Rick Wakeman, Dungen and Spirit to Fela Kuti, King Crimson, MGMT and Air as influences on the group's last studio record, One-Armed Bandit (Ninja Tune, 2010). Horntveth is also a fan of jazz arrangers/composers like Gil Evans, so it's not that Jaga Jazzist doesn't have jazz in its DNA; it's just so deeply buried amidst everything from classical music to progressive rock that finding a way to describe the group's music has always been something of a challenge. Live with Britten Sinfonia, culled from one of two 2012 performances to marry the group with the UK's intrepid contemporary classical ensemble Britten Sinfonia, does little to clear the waters; if anything, the addition of a 26-piece chamber orchestra only serves to muddy them further, but in the case of Jaga Jazzist, that's not a bad thing—it's a very, very good thing.
The album was recorded at Oslo's Rockefeller club, where Jaga delivered the closing show of the 2012 Ultima Festival, a new music festival that has increasingly blurred its own stylistic boundaries. It was also the last show of Conexions's first season, a series curated by the host of BBC Radio 3's Late Junction, Fiona Talkington, that brings together musicians from Norway and Great Britain to explore what might happen—and that usually means something magical, as drummer Thomas Strønen's Time is a Blind Guide performance also demonstrated earlier this year, the second show of Coexions' second season. Teaming with Jaga with Britten was fortuitous, given the orchestral nature of a group that, amongst its nine members, includes over 20 instruments and whose stage normally looks like the shop window for a second-hand music store. The addition of a string section, more horns, woodwinds and percussion only make pieces like "Toccata," from One-Armed Bandit—very much a reflection of Horntveth's interest in minimalism—all the more impressive, its various interlocking parts even more expansive, even as they're driven with a rock edge by Even Ormestad's pulsing bass and Horntveth sibling Martin's thundering drum kit.
Live's nine pieces may largely be culled from One-Armed Bandit, but there are tracks drawn from across a near 20-year career that's all the more surprising given that the mean age amongst the group is early thirties. "Kitty Wu," from The Stix (Warner International, 2003), gets a facelift, as do the darker tone poem "For All You Happy People" and brighter closer, "Oslo Skyline," both from What We Must (Ninja Tune, 2005).
With orchestrations largely written by Lars Horntveth—assisted by Erik Johannessen on the opening "Overture," where the trombonist also takes an extended solo—the material provides extra solo space throughout, with a brief but unexpectedly visceral saxophone solo from Horntveth near the end of "One-Armed Bandit," in addition to giving the tunes more room to breathe and expand compositionally. During the floating intro to "Bananfluer Overalt," Horntveth also makes a clear reference—both in its arrangement and with Mathias Eick's trumpet solo—to Gil Evans' classic collaboration with trumpeter Miles Davis on Sketches of Spain (Columbia, 1960), in one of the album's more beautiful moments.
But for fans of the more ear-splitting side of Jaga, there's plenty of electrified energy on tracks like "Prungen," the only new piece on the recording, and one the epitomizes Jaga Jazzist's approach to composition: complex and episodic, with knotty instrumental counterpoint often interfacing with otherworldly electronics, yet with ever-singable melodies still soaring over relentlessly shifting meters.
That Jaga Jazzist now has an orchestral book means that it can perform this material with other chamber orchestras, and has three dates booked with different ensembles throughout 2013. But it all started with Britten Sinfonia and this September, 2012 show—the second of two performances, the first taking place three months earlier in England, and if the audiences in attendance at these Conexions series performances were considering themselves lucky to be experiencing what, at the time, seemed like it would be a one-time (well, two-time) deal, Jaga Jazzist fans around the world can now feel grateful that the Rockefeller show was so meticulously recorded and mixed.
That Live with Britten Sinfonia was an album not necessarily intended to happen at the time of the recording only makes its release all the sweeter. This 35-piece marriage of Jaga Jazzist and Britten Sinfonia is capable of everything from earth-shattering power to refined beauty. With Britten conducted by the world-renowned Christian Eggen, Live with Britten Sinfonia is the vital document of an opportunity that no longer need feel missed by so many Jaga fans around the world—an album that, transcending their already significant accomplishments, demonstrates even greater potential for Lars Horntveth's writing and Jaga Jazzist's effortless (and faultless) performances.
John Kelman - All About Jazz
