Drummer Henrik and saxophonist Jonny Wartel are siblings, born in the 1950s and playing together and with plenty of collaborators since their youth. For this latest release, they have joined forces with bassist Georgia Wartel Collins, daughter and niece of the brothers, and pianist Mathias Landæus.
An eight-piece suite that moves through very different sections, the opening moments of Celebrating Live find pensive sax intertwined with wary piano. There is a sense of intrigue that is aided by some shadowy percussive work. These moments drift like smoke before the piano starts to hop and begins meandering, Mathias drawing the others with him.
There is a calm looseness, but also a sense of control; you feel that they all have their own agenda and they could break in any direction, but won’t be leaping like a cannonball, breaking the surface. There are conversations of sorts with quiet passages entered by slow breakdowns as the smoky horn, the subtle tapping of rims and the warm, burbling bass are circled by the piano like a cat on a hot tin roof. The piano often does the chasing, its swells and washes inspiring the others to follow suit, stopping off briefly at a familiar motif before discarding it and using it as a springboard elsewhere. The drums, like well-oiled pistons, throw a trolley-bus cymbal clang to change direction, suddenly coming on like a hot jazz troupe being chased through the streets of San Francisco as the sax dips in and out.On the opposing side though, the group are not afraid to dial things right down and allow the spaces between the sounds to speak. Pastoral sounds decay as the bass drops to the lightest of steps and entwines around the sax. These moments of spare tranquility or early morning torpor are interspersed with the wriggling piano, its classical infiltration throwing us briefly off the scent.
There are generous opportunities for solos, with a restless drum section giving stop-start textural vibration over cyclical patterns working all the kit; while the sensual, sinuous sax works around, never retreading the same path. When the piano and bass break back in, the floodgates open once again and the rhythm section is suddenly moving at twice the speed. It is this progression through moods and feeling that gives the album such playability and offers up a different feeling with each listen as you dive deeper.Whether Celebrating Live is a one-off or there is more to come, for now this is a freeform treat that has just the right amount of structure.
-Mr Olivetti-
