Magnus Öström and Dan Berglund celebrate 30 years of e.s.t. with live album
In 1993 three Swedish musicians – pianist Esbjörn Svensson, drummer Magnus Öström and bassist Dan Berglund – started what was soon to become known as e.s.t. (Esbjorn Svensson Trio). Their snowballing success was cut short by the pianist’s untimely death aged 44 in a tragic diving accident on 14 June 2008, ending a 15-year run in which the band became regarded as the most influential jazz group of the time; their blend of high-octane improvisation and Nordic and electronic influences won them a huge global fanbase.
To mark the 30th anniversary of the group’s formation, Öström and Berglund joined forces with close musical friends – pianist Joel
Lyssarides, multi-reedist Magnus Lindgren, trumpeter Verneri Pohjola and guitarist Ulf Wakenius – to give two major concerts in October 2023, one at the Kölner Philharmonie, the other at the Filadelfia church in Stockholm. These saw the larger line-up play a selection of quintessential pieces from the e.s.t. repertoire. The results are to be released as an album, e.s.t. 30, on 31 May on ACT Music, with the tracklisting including extended versions of favourites such as ‘From Gagarin’s Point of View’, ‘Eighthundred Streets by Feet’, ‘Tuesday Wonderland’ and the euphoric ‘Elevation of Love’. For more info visit www.actmusic.com/en
Editor’s Note
While the piano has perhaps been the preeminent force in jazz in recent times, the saxophone arguably remains the music’s clarion call: just a couple of notes from a sax can pull us into that familiar soundworld we call jazz. And some 178 years on from when Adolphe Sax first patented his gamechanging instrument design in 1846, the saxophone continues to make headlines – not least with Shabaka Hutchings’ muchpublicised decision to stop playing one in favour of flutes – while also inspiring new generations of innovators. This issue offers a snapshot of the current state of play with two modern day titans – Chris Potter and Tim Garland – both at the top of their game and pushing themselves and their music into new territory with the saxophone front and centre. Jasmine Myra is one of several younger players (see also Maddy Coombs and Emily Masser in Taking Off) expressing their own highly personal voices on the instrument; and Mark Lockheart salutes one of the all-time greats, Wayne Shorter, in Turning Point. And the fact that Marshall Allen is still playing live with the Sun Ra Arkestra (albeit on an EVI now rather than an alto sax) as he turns 100 is testimony to the never-ending creativity the sound of the saxophone inspires. Mike Flynn, Editor, Jazzwise
Chick Corea and Béla Fleck’s final Duo recordings to be released on new album Remembrance A new album entitled Remembrance, featuring the final recordings of the late piano luminary Chick Corea and multi-award winning banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck, is released on 10 May on the Thirty Tigers imprint. It’s described as “a moving final document of the duo’s deep creative and personal rapport which they first showcased on their 2007 Latin Grammy-
winning The Enchantment.
Corea’s death from cancer at age 79 in 2021, devastated the jazz world, and the height of the Covid pandemic, Remembrance runs the stylistic gamut: from Corea’s unreleased tunes ‘Enut Nital’ (or ‘Latin Tune’, spelled backwards), and ‘Continuance’, an older work that resurfaced in the duo’s setlist; to new Fleck compositions, such as ‘The Otter Creek Incident’ and ‘Juno’, a tribute to his son; through “clairvoyant interpretations” of Thelonious Monk and Domenico Scarlatti; to challenging exercises, such as Fleck’s ‘Small Potatoes’ (which evokes Corea’s unsung work in the jazz avant-garde).
these recordings will be seen as an important addition to the pianist’s musical legacy; they feature three previously unreleased Corea compositions as well as five short free improvisations, or ‘impromptus’, that Fleck has infused with written music. Recorded both live in concert (on what was the duo’s final tour in 2019) and via traded sound files in
“I know it sounds unlikely. But it really happened. Once upon a time, I played banjo in a duo with Chick Corea,” says Fleck of his partnership with the piano icon. “I had been influenced by Chick’s music since childhood, and I just feel so lucky to have played with him in such an intimate way, and to have gotten to know him so well. We pushed this duo to a new place before we ran out of time. There’s a lot of great Corea [music] out there, and this is different.”
Speaking back in 2015 about his unique relationship with Fleck, Corea said: “With Béla, our duet has become so simpatico, and comfortable – comfortable spiritually. And not meaning that we’re not adventuring musically, but I do know that whatever we’re going to do, [it] is going to be musical.” For more info visit www.belafleck.com/ music#remembrance
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