Jacob Young - Evening Falls (2004)

It's been an ECM kind of week for me, so here we are again, this time jumping back a decade for another guitarist, in his debut with the label recorded in December 2002.  Lillehammer native Jacob Young has been working with some of the hottest names in Nordic jazz since the 90s, and here fronts a two-horn quintet that includes one of my favourite ECM trumpeters of recent years, Mathias Eick.

Rather than put his clear guitar talents front and centre, Young's sound on this set of his own material is a sumptuously arranged and well-meshed group performance of highly lyrical tunes.  The immersive melancholy makes Evening Falls a well-chosen title for just under an hour of late listening.  As well as enjoying Young's lean playing, Eick is the obvious breakout star of this session, but Vidar Johansen sounds fantastic here too, especially when he switches from sax to bass clarinet.  Lovely stuff all round.

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