Three distinctive characters of European jazz
come together on Hasse Poulsen’s new trio
album. The members of the trio live in three
different countries: the Danish-born guitarist
is now based in Paris, Fredrik Lundin made
his home in Denmark, while Polish Tomasz
Dabrowski moved to Sweden, after working in
Denmark for a long time. As the three musicians
dispersed across the continent, the material
on this album is as varied, diverse and full of
twists, but with a palpable common musical
denominator throughout.
Hasse Poulsen is one of those seasoned and
open-minded musicians who are as bold in their
reworking of pub songs as they are astonishing in
their ability to think up contemporary compositions.
In contrast to the still very popular ideal of music
that is rhythmically, harmonically or in any other
aspect complicated, Poulsen swears by simplicity,
leaving ample room for improvisation and individual,
spontaneous musical ideas. The album includes
both emotive, melodic tracks and contemporary
atonal compositions, but all musical references
and frameworks used are intended to liberate the
imagination and show new directions. Some of these
songs seem sacred, others rebellious. Sometimes the
“trialogue” is gentle and empathetic, at other times
it erupts into stark contrasts. The three musicians
may flatter each other in one song, only to keep an
insurmountable distance from one another in the
next.
The members of the trio are all confident soloists
with extensive knowledge and experience of several
musical genres. Hasse Poulsen is best known for
his ensemble Das Kapital (with Daniel Erdmann and
Edward Perraud), but he has also toured the continent
as a duo with Hélène Labarrière and as a member of
the trio Kaleidoscope, while in Tom’s Wild Years he
can also be heard singing. The Danish-born guitarist
has been adventuring with Fredrik Lundin in various
styles and bands for three decades, but until recently
they never formed a band together, searching for the
best opportunity and medium in which their shared
experiences could finally crystallize. The line-up
on this album grew out of the trio he formed with
Thomas Fryland, later replaced by Tomasz Dabrowski:
the Polish-born trumpeter, who studied in Denmark,
was invited by Lundin, with whom he plays in several
bands. Dabrowski, considered by DownBeat magazine
to be one of the most versatile and curious players in
Europe today, is a stakeholder of Polish jazz trumpet
playing, and despite his young age, he has the
opportunity to play on the instrument of his former
teacher, Tomasz Stanko. At once bold and lyrical,
his playing perfectly complements, and sometimes
unexpectedly counterbalances, the well-tried duo of
Poulsen and Lundin.