Banging and Scraping for the Groove

I’m going to guess that The Esbjörn Svensson Trio from Sweden are jazzers that grew up on rock. I’d throw this outfit in a bag with cool cat Matthew Shipp which I’ve posted here before. Both musicks display footnotes from hip hop, rock, trance, and here – when that double bass (Dan Berglund) drops in with the bowed fuzz tone – metal. I think the band has moments when it wants to traipse off into New Agey Fairyland, or rural folk as they’ve called George Winston, but that bass player and muted piano hammering brings it all back.

I’ve long argued that bebop, like abstract painting, are movements that want to take the art away from the people and lock in the tiny rooms for an academy audience. If bebop had rich benefactors like fine art does with collectors, there might be a bigger audience for jazz. (People do worship the rich. Even the things they collect.)

Maybe this is what it’ll take to save jazz and make it relevant again.