Mikko Innanen / Otis Sandsjö / Jonas Kullhammar / Petter Eldh / Christian Lillinger

Tikkun

Dawn Ceremony for Dreadful Days

LFDS 013

Superficially there’s much in common with these European combo sessions. Both are high concepts led by a bassist performing mostly archetypical original music and each features a three-person sax section and a drummer. But outside of a rhythmic pulse and high octane musicianship they couldn’t be more different. Like the currents that first influenced early Blues and Jazz, Koma Saxo’s Live is all-out party music that should be experienced on Saturday night. Tikkun’s Dawn Ceremony for Dreadful Days on the other hand relates to the no-less-joyous but more solemn ecclesiastical music that was consecrated on Sunday mornings.

That’s where comparisons stop though for rather than related to Christian liturgy, French bassist Yoram Rosilio composed Dawn Ceremony for Dreadful Days’ nine tracks based on the Day of Atonement religious ritual followed by Sephardic Jews. Plus Tikkun’s sixth member is trumpeter Andrew Crocker, an American whose English recitation on the final track links religious ritual with spiritual Jazz. The other players are French: doubling saxophonists Jean-Michel Couchet, Florent Dupuit and Benoit Guenoun and drummer Rafael Koerner. All are involved in a multiplicity of groups. So are the players on Live, starting with Swedish bassist Petter Eldh. Saxophonists Mikko Innanen, Otis Sandsjö and Jonas Kullhammar are Scandinavians as well, while drummer Christian Lillinger is German.

Propelled by staccato power strokes from both bassist and drummer, Koma Saxo creates crests of passionate commotion associated more with US roadhouses than a Finnish Jazz Festival. In fact as the horns’ spunky vamps, slap-tonguing and honks scooped from the saxophone’s innards move some track to the height of pleasant delirium. In fact tight R&B horn sections like those in the Tower of Power, the Jukes and the Butterfield Blues band are more readily apparent than Jazz antecedents. Frenetic harmonies still roll back enough with multiphonics, flattement and strained vibrations to confirm the players know improvised music and Jazz strategies. Additionally the final two cuts, “Fiskeskärsmelodin” and “Stepp, Min Stepp” confirm the quintet’s ability emphasis the calm after the storm. Emphasizing the saxophons’ bottom tones, the final tune is a foot-tapping, sometimes vocalized sing-along with swaying “Volga Boatman” and sea shanty references. Prominent reed shrieks and shudders seem completely natural as the band creeps to an echoing conclusion. Inspired by an arrangement of Evert Taube’s famous sailor song/lullaby “Fiskeskärsmelodin” moves along on saxophone undulations and drum pumps. However lightness is provided by flute- pitched peeps.

Ostensibly more serious because of its inspiration, tracks on the other CD are still anything but lugubrious and mournful. Infused with the sort of joyfulness reflect in the band’s name, the compositions seem to echo both Sephardic and Ashkenazi inflections with some fluctuations suggesting Klezmer-style countermelodies. This comes through on tracks like “Onim Ve Omrim”, which appears to be a half dervish and half Eastern European dance melody. Slippery trumpet obbligatos, overlapping reed vibrations and darbuka-like beats confirm this duality, though unexpected twists turn up on other tracks. “Kaddish” for instance is advanced with Rosilio’s Mingus-strength plucks leading to the all-out adventure of “Brakhot”, featuring elastic and ecstatic trumpet runs mixing Free Jazz style honks and cries from the saxophonist, with the narrative subsequently slowing down for concentrated intensity. Polyphonic slips and slides illuminate “Amidah”, the longest tune with a series of motifs. With the reeds sliding up and down the scale the introduction’s walking pace is inflated with rim shots and trumpet peeps before subsiding with a moderated bass solo of spidery pluck. These timbres are then displayed and confirmed during the session’s concluding tracks.

Antithetical in conception and performance, both CDs offer musical visions that allow swinging intensity to mate with serious thoughts.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Live: 1. Euro Koma 2. Puls Koma (Petter Eldh, Christian Lillinger) 3. Fanfarum For Komarum III 4. Waltz Me Baby, Waltz Me All Night Long 5. Otis & Christian 6. Blumer 7. Fiskeskärsmelodin 8. Stepp, Min Stepp

Personnel: Live: Mikko Innanen (alto and baritone sax); Otis Sandsjö and Jonas Kullhammar (tenor saxophones); Petter Eldh (bass) and Christian Lillinger (drums)

Track Listing: Dawn: 1. Hachem 2. Onim Ve Omrim 3. Tov Lehodot 4. Kaddish 5. Brakhot 6. Shema 7. Amidah 8. Ygdal 9. Mi Aich

Personnel: Dawn: Andrew Crocker (trumpet and voice); Jean-Michel Couchet (soprano and alto saxophones); Florent Dupuit (tenor saxophone, flute and piccolo): Benoit Guenoun (tenor saxophone and flute); Yoram Rosilio (bass) and Rafael Koerner (drums)