Friday, 16 February 2018

Arild Andersen - Molde Concert (expanded edition 2000, orig 1982)

ECM magnificence from the Molde Jazz Festival in August 1981, partly released as a single LP in 1982, then restored to almost (one track from the LP had to be dropped to squeeze in under 80 mins) full glory on CD in 2000.  The great Norwegian bassist was joined for this fine selection of his tunes (plus the Miles Davis/Tony Williams-penned encore) by Bill Frisell on guitar, John Taylor on piano, and sometime Weather Reporter Alphonse Mouzon on drums.

We've mostly heard Taylor and Frisell in mellow modes on this blog up til now (check the label tags for previous posts), and there is a good showing of downtempo loveliness in the Molde setlist - Targeta, Lifelines and Koral for sure - but for the most part, this album absolutely rocks.  Finding the confidence that he recalled wasn't quite there yet on Fluid Rustle, Bill Frisell hits cooking temperature right from the set opener and just gets increasingly jaw dropping from there.

It might just be the fact that he's a jazz guitarist with a full on rock snarl here, but Frisell made me think of Steve Howe at least once - check Cameron near the end, where Andersen also gets a great solo spot.  The 13 minutes of The Sword Beneath His Wings are also a highlight for Frisell and for everyone - Andersen might be the bandleader, but this is very much a firing-on-all-cylinders group effort.  Even the drum solos are awesome, as on Six For Alphonse.  Highly recommended.
original LP cover
link
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9 comments:

  1. Destroyer198516 February 2018 at 17:54

    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Roz16 February 2018 at 19:34

    Thanks! This looks interesting, especially since I don't often hear Frisell get too wild on record

    ReplyDelete
  3. Roz16 February 2018 at 19:36

    Also, I forget if I told you already, but I got around to sharing some live Azimuth at my blog: http://replaceprogram.blogspot.ca/2018/02/azimuth-1978-02-06-bremen-germany.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Alan Burns16 February 2018 at 19:40

      I like the comparison to vaporwave! Uncanny how certain sounds/textures come back around.

      Delete
    2. Roz18 February 2018 at 02:21

      Thanks! One of these days I'm going to get around to making a mixtape of 70s/80s ECM tracks I think vaporwave fans would dig: Jan Garbarek, Azimuth, Michael Mantler

      Delete
  4. Anonymous23 February 2018 at 03:42

    "...vaporwave fans would dig: Jan Garbarek, Azimuth, Michael Mantler"

    Weird comparison. I mean, records by those artists contain actual musical content.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Subhankar8 November 2018 at 16:02

    I first heard Arild Andersen on Bobo Stenson's 'Underwear', and more recently on Vassilis Tsabropoulos' 'Achirana'. Looking forward to hearing this. Thank you for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Alan Burns18 November 2018 at 22:19

    https://drive.google.com/open?id=1VebeMjcDjqaMoawOYsOCXlORV3D8z43R

    pw: sgtg

    ReplyDelete
  7. Certifiablockhead16 November 2019 at 21:20

    thanks for the new link, Mouzon got me here...great stuff...

    ReplyDelete

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