In ricordo del grande Sven-Åke Johansson (1943-2025) il londinese Cafe Oto pubblica in digitale e in doppio cd per la propria etichetta, Otoroku, il resoconto di due speciali serate ideate e organizzate dal Nostro ad aprile dello scorso anno con la partecipazione di Pierre Borel, Seymour Wright e Joel Grip: Two Days at Cafe Oto.
When asked to play at Oto last year, Johansson proposed two nights with four musicians half his age - alto saxophonist Seymour Wright, his fellow [Ahmed] member and double bassist Joel Grip, and French alto saxophonist Pierre Borel. Grip and Borel both played alongside Johansson in Stumps; Wright had previously recorded a trio with Johansson and Grip almost a year earlier in Johansson’s Berlin studio - due to be released later in the year via We Jazz as The Jazzy Stork. A quartet of two saxophones, bass and drums sounds like jazz, but all four players perpetually reach outside of the genre for inspiration.
Sven-Åke Johansson was a man of intention with a touch of melodrama and it kept his music from drying out. Amidst the great volume of German Free Music in the 1970s, Johannson's first solo LP Schlingerland (1972) swishes cymbal and snare, tom and hi-hat, sometimes almost imperceptibly. Skin, metal, plastic and wood, always in a tank of developer; quite melodic, beautifully concentrated. Fifty years on, Borel, Grip and Wright continue this gradual investigation of music and there are no better collaborators for Johannson. All three can shred jazz into its microparts, can swing, can groove and shriek. Over Two Days at Cafe Oto, buoyed by Johannason’s light touch, a sort of minimalist bebop emerges - the last track dividing and multiplying melodic fragments until its motifs print the inside of your skull. It’s totally luxury music - full freedom, full commitment. If it doesn't hit the first time, you’re sure to come back for it. We’re blessed it was recorded and grateful to have shared in this music. Thank you, Sven-Åke Johansson.
http://www.sven-akejohansson.com
https://www.cafeoto.co.uk/sven-ake-johansson-two-day-residency
https://youtu.be/8qjc38tdAVo
https://otoroku.bandcamp.com/two-days-at-cafe-oto