Oddjob - Koyo AMCD 896 / AMLP 896 A year and a half after the release of their critically acclaimed – and Grammy-award winning – debut album, Oddjob returns with a new master opus: Koyo. Since the release of their previous record, Oddjob - trumpet-player Goran Kajfes, saxophonist Per ”Ruskträsk” Johansson, keyboardist Daniel Karlsson, bassist Peter Forss and drummer Janne Robertson - have hardly been idle. Besides a number of shorter tours, a variety of festivals, including a highly celebrated appearance at the Stockholm Jazz Festival on Skeppsholmen last summer, they have also found time to run a club together with Blacknuss at Mosebacke in Stockholm! The latter says quite a bit about Oddjob: they not only seek new directions for their fundamentally jazz-oriented music, they also actively hunt for audiences outside of the regular ”jazz lounges”. Together with ”veterans” Esbjörn Svensson Trio and the ”new young saxophone prospect” Jonas Kullhammar and his quartet, Oddjob is today one of the most sought after and appreciated jazz acts in Sweden. As in the case of the above-mentioned greats, Oddjob is a well-functioning unit in which the members never have to compromise their own uniqueness. Those who have had the good fortune to hear Oddjob’s self-named debut album and/or seen them live know that at times they sound like ”a single body”, but like a body, are made up of a number of (vital) components. As is the case with the debut album, Koyo has everything from scorching hot tracks to more elegant and intricate ballads. Around the incomparable core: Robertson’s pressure cooker-like yet always sensitive percussion and Forss’ masterful, rich base playing, Kajfes, Ruskträsk and Karlsson embroider melodic phrases and improvisations that literally take your breath away. A strong contributing factor to Koyo’s fantastic ”sound” – and the members of Oddjob agree – is Carl-Michael Herlöfsson. A man gifted with exceptional perception and sensitive fingers – and who has previously worked with artists such as Baxter, Weeping Willows and Flesh Quartet. The opening track, Their Song, with its stunningly beautiful harmonies and laidback batucada-like beats, is a pure revelation. Perhaps the best track Miles Davis never made. On Malmö-Lund, Oddjob display, with almost uncanny proficiency, their ability to work with sophisticated arrangements at the same time as the piece swings like mad. Daniel Karlsson’s piano solo is indescribable! Yes, Man Machine is a cover of Kraftwerk’s classic! With a great deal of respect and feeling – the arrangement is meticulous with a somewhat ghostly feel to it – Oddjob tackles this classic without giving way to a moment’s obsequiousness. Both Kajfe’s and Ruskträsk’s playing is brilliant. Indeed, the entire sound picture, hypnotically conjured up by the entire group, is magical. Titanic is an almost archetypical Oddjob track with its heavy, minimalist rhythm base. It is like a tapestry in which the rhythm section first lays down a foundation and then allows the wind section to fill in the finer points. The atmosphere that Oddjob sets for the composition Leadhead is barren and musty yet at the same time warm and open. Here, perhaps more than anywhere else on the album, the genius of Goran Kajfes comes to light. I Am Sailing was written by Daniel Karlsson, the true maritime enthusiast and sailor of the band. The composition has the nearly hypnotic character that Wayne Shorter used to give the Miles Davis Quintet in the 1960s. On Return Of The Party Animal, Oddjob once again deliver the kind of jubilant music they are capable of. Janne Robertson and Peter Forss whip up a brutal yet at the same time ingenious beat that, above all, transforms Ruskträsk into a whirlwind! It may well be the best solo he ever recorded. The album concludes with a high-class piece of chamber jazz. Whether Peter named it Must in Swedish or English, the title is perfect. That’s because it is both musty and also a must for Koyo’s totality. A hint, or another possibility, may be that Must was recorded outdoors, since that day Atlantis was as hot as a sauna! |
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