Returnings Jakob Bro, Thomas Morgan & Jon Christensen

• 1 Oktober 04:21
• 2 Strands 04:45
• 3 Song For Nicolai 05:21
• 4 View 08:42
• 5 Lyskaster 05:04
• 6 Hamsun 05:16
• 7 Returnings 05:38
• 8 Youth 02:38
• Total Runtime 41:45

Info for Returnings

"Danish guitarist Jakob Bro creates magical music, impossible to categorize", wrote Downbeat recently. On 'Returnings' the magic is intensified as Bro and musical soul-mate Thomas Morgan reconnect with two living legends of European jazz, trumpeter Palle Mikkelborg and drummer Jon Christensen.

It's an inspired combination: Bro's watercolour guitar sounds, Mikkelborg's soft Milesian lugelhorn, Morgan's impeccable choice of notes, and Christensen's free-floating drumming. These components add up to one of the prettiest and subtlest jazz albums of recent times.

The theme of "returnings" is central. The album opens with a new version of "Oktober", picking up the story from Bro's album 'Gefion'. In recent years, Jakob's trio with Thomas Morgan and Joey Baron has, happily, gained a strong following. Meanwhile, the guitarist had also been looking for a context in which to continue his association with Jon Christensen ? which 'Returnings' provides. It also reunites Christensen with Palle Mikkelborg for the first time on ECM since Terje Rypal's 'Vossabrygg' (recorded in 2003).

"Returnings" was recorded in July 2016 at Oslo's Rainbow Studio and produced by Manfred Eicher.

Jacob Bro, guitar
Palle Mikkelborg, trumpet, flugelhorn
Thomas Morgan, double bass
Jon Christensen, drums

Jakob Bro
born 1978 is a Danish guitar player and composer living in Copenhagen, Denmark. He is a former member of Paul Motian & The Electric Bebop Band (Garden of Eden, ECM – 2006) and a current member of Tomasz Stanko’s Dark Eyes Quintet (Dark Eyes, ECM – 2009).

He has released 10 records as a bandleader including musicians like Lee Konitz, Bill Frisell, Paul Motian, Kenny Wheeler, Paul Bley, Chris Cheek, Thomas Morgan, Ben Street, Mark Turner, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Andrew D’Angelo, Chris Speed, George Garzone, Oscar Noriega, David Virelles and many more.

He is currently leading a trio with Jon Christensen and Thomas Morgan. This trio recorded for ECM records in November 2013. Also he is touring and working with his trio with Anders Christensen and Jakob Høyer, with his Undectet with Andrew D’Angelo, Jesper Zeuthen, Chris Speed, AC, Nicolai Munch-Hansen, Thomas Morgan, Kresten Osgood, Jakob Høyer, Nikolaj Torp, Søren Kjærgaard and Peter Laugesen and with Bro/Knak, a collaboration with the Danish electronica producer Thomas Knak (Opiate).

Jakob Bro has received 5 Danish Music Awards and has been accepted into Jazz Denmark’s Hall of Fame. In 2009 and 2013 he received JazzSpecial’s price for Danish Jazz Record of the Year (Balladeering & December Song) and in 2012 he received the DJBFA honorary award. He in the top-10 of Downbeat’s Annual Critics Poll Rising Stars and in 2013 he received both the ”Composer of the Year” Award from Danish Music Publishers Association (the price is named after Danish classical composer Carl Nielsen) and The Jazznyt Price founded by Niels Overgaard.

In both 2006 and 2012 he was rewarded by The Danish Arts Foundation for his recordings Pearl River and Bro/Knak and in 2014 the trilogy Balladeering, Time & December Song was nominated for the Nordic Councils Music Prize.

Thomas Morgan
is a double bass player with a unique approach to the instrument and an exceptional musical understanding. He has recorded and toured all over the world as a member of Paul Motian’s bands, the John Abercrombie Quartet, the Dave Binney Quartet, Steve Coleman and Five Elements, and the Tomasz Stanko New York Quartet, among many others. It is Thomas Morgan’s extraordinary way of being in the moment in music and putting his own signature on it that has made him one of the most in demand jazz bassists on the international scene. He has played on more than seventy recordings and is currently touring with the Craig Taborn Trio, Jakob Bro, the Jim Black Trio, the Dan Weiss Trio, the Scott DuBois Quartet, and others.

Jon Christensen
born 20 March 1943 in Oslo, is a Norwegian jazz percussionist. In the late 1960s he played alongside Jan Garbarek on several recordings by the composer George Russell.

He appears on many recordings on the ECM label with such artists as Keith Jarrett, Jan Garbarek, Bobo Stenson, Eberhard Weber, Ralph Towner, Barre Phillips, Enrico Rava, John Abercrombie, Michael Mantler, Miroslav Vitous, Rainer Brüninghaus, Charles Lloyd, Dino Saluzzi and Tomasz Stanko.

Jon elaborates on beats: “You could go to a jazz club Tuesday at 8:00 and play just one tap on the cymbal, then come back to the club exactly one week later and play one more cymbal hit. People would think the two events have nothing in common. But that is a beat.”

Well, that might not wash in Nashville, but it's certainly worked its magic for a host of ECM artists. “If I'm playing with a band in 4/4 in a medium tempo,” Jon explains, “and I feel like loosening up a bit, I could go out of tempo or stop altogether”but I always know exactly where I am. I'm just not marking the 1 or setting up the bridge with a fill. I always try to avoid that. Instead, I try to play in waves."

Although Christensen can play straight time with the best of 'em - always on a brutally heavy old Turkish K - he'd rather mix it up a little. You hear Jon's diverse approaches on his ECM Rarum release, eloquent testimony to his status as a master of modern jazz drumming. Other Rarum honorees include Chick Corea, Jack DeJohnette, Pat Metheny, Dave Holland, Gary Burton, Keith Jarrett, and Bill Frisell. …

Booklet for Returnings