The Core

Moving and intense, Roots is a comeback after a 14-year hiatus by four Norwegian improvisers who make up The Core. A take on no-holds-barred Free Jazz, the six original tunes are played powerfully and professionally, but the performance still labors in the shadow of the classic John Coltrane quartet.

Saxophonist Kjetil Møster, pianist Erlend Slettevoll, bassist Steinar Saknes and percussionist Espen Aalberg haven’t been idle in the interim. Singly each has worked in groups with Gard Nilssen, Petter Wettre, Tord Gustaven and Håvard Lund among others. But the revived quartet members easily come together on “Dark Star”, the first track and stay focused from then on. Enlivening most tracks with a modal overlay and chunky cadences, pieces are enlivened by the saxophonist’s ascending flutters, that just avoid screams; the pianist’s double-timing and ringing chording; understated bass string thumps and drum clunks and patters.

Despite Aalberg having composed four of the six tracks, percussion work is mostly horizontal and responsive, unlike Elvin Jones steamroller effects with Coltrane, and again unlike Jimmy Garrison withy Trane, the bass work moves with an unobtrusive flow. While the pianist’s light-fingered ringing chords and linear approach recognize a moderation that McCoy Tyner actually emphasized after his Coltrane stint, the same sort of energy is present, especially during vigorous sequences on the first track, “Opak” and “Chains”, plus Slettevoll even adds a touch of lyricism.

Møster, who has been able to hold his own in a quartet with as overwhelming a fellow saxophonist as Mats Gustafsson, brings that same fervor to the tunes here. He scoops, growls and pressurized slurs from his horns’ lowest registers, creates hocketing emphasis and treble tongue slaps from the highest register and strains, squeaks and slithers among sheets of sound and fractured tonguing. The response in some cases  is heighted piledriver patterns from Slettevoll.

There’s no questioning the earnest vigor members of The Core bring to Roots. But the title itself suggests lack of distance from the players’ obvious role model(s). More sense of themselves as improvisers would have improved the session.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Dark Star 2. The Root 3. Messi 4. Opak 5. Orbis 6. Chains

Personnel: Kjetil Møster (tenor, baritone and soprano saxophones and percussion); Erlend Slettevoll (piano); Steinar Saknes (bass and percussion)  and Espen Aalberg (drums and percussion)