Avant-Garde Party Music (Clean Feed)
Cortex
Released September 15, 2017
DownBeat Four-and-a-Half-Star Review
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_leGc8pjilSeRxaLDMgLlasXVoef2Km60k
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/intl-pt/album/4AY72gJqra7OepIMyOzhoi?si=XRvpUxBfRl2ILmjHEmY6-w
About:
Cortex? No, this isn’t jazz of the cerebral kind – even considering that the approach in “Avant-Garde Party Music” is very much the intelectual one coming from the bebop / hard bop era (when the music seated its users, inviting them to listen and not prioritarily to dance) and approaching our times through the free jazz evolutive line. Avant-garde the music certainly is, but you can still party with it, because this record grooves and swings like hell. Not in the conventional way, of course, but giving a chance to your temptation to shake the body. Having the transitional years going from bop to free as reference, it’s natural that you find on these tracks the influence of what Ornette Coleman did with Don Cherry. But this isn’t as simple as that: Cortex is a Scandinavian band and as such the music has a twist, the same you’ve found before in groups like The Thing, Atomic and The Core: a sort of hyper-realism, turning this jazz born in Europe even more “authentic” than the American original.
Track Listing:
1. Grinder 05:49
2. Chaos 03:48
3. Waltz 05:58
4. (If you where) Mac Davis 03:38
5. Disturbance 04:22
6. Obverse/Reverse 05:01
7. Perception 05:12
8. Off Course 03:54
Personnel:
Thomas Johansson: trumpet
Kristoffer Berre Alberts: saxophones
Ola Høyer: bass
Gard Nilssen: drums
Recorded January 2017, at Athletic Sound, by Dag Erik Johansen and Kai Andersen
Mixed by Daniel Mikael Wold, May 2017
Mastered by Fridtjof Lindemann at Strype Audio, May 2017
Produced by Cortex
Executive production by Pedro Costa for Trem Azul
Cover photo by Kristinn Gudlaugsson
Design by Travassos
Review:
Your cerebral cortex is a wrinkled mass of gray matter, so one wonders exactly why the Norwegian quartet Cortex adopted the name. It’s certainly not a matter of physical similarity, since their music, which is penned by trumpeter Thomas Johansson, is bold, bright and well defined. Perhaps the performers had the cerebral cortex’s role as governor of executive functions and memory in mind. That makes more sense, since the combo gets a lot done in a hurry on Avant-Garde Party Music (eight tunes in less than 38 minutes), and its music draws on memories of free-bop and free-jazz. But they’re not living in the past; rather, the players’ adopted formats are well suited to their collective instrumental gifts. Johansson and saxophonist Kristoffer Berre Alberts shadow each other through quick, jubilant unison lines. Each takes his solos into roughly textured terrain quite distant from the tunes and back again with confidence and fluency. Drummer Gard Nilssen is equally facile, playing boiling-hot tempos or coolly shading a pensive melody. And bassist Ola Høyer provides an essential elasticity, ensuring that when another player hits the ropes, they’ll bounce back into play, upright and ready for more. The album’s title, like the band’s name, makes you think a bit. This isn’t an obvious record for your next party, since it’s far too ebullient and bracing to accompany some idle chit-chat. But if you want to really whoop it up, it’s hard to think of a better record to have on; the quartet’s boisterous performances unquestionably will make you want to holler.
Bill Meyer (DownBeat)
