A couple of days later we were back in Stockholm to record some of the pieces. This gave us much needed time with the music, allowing a chance to solidify the arrangements and organize clearer ways to approach the compositions as a band. Throughout the tour, which was sponsored by the Riksconcerter, the trio performed as a double bill with the pianist and vocalist Matti Ollikainen, who played jazz standards and haunting versions of Swedish folk songs. After Sunday’s recording the tour got into full gear. We traveled together in a small bus to play concerts in Gavle (10/30), Vasteras (10/31), Goteborg (11/1), and Stockholm (11/2). Usually the groups I work with have two sets a night to deal with the music they’re playing which helps to accelerate the process of the band’s development. With only one set a night to play together on this trip it felt like the trio was hampered by the lack of time available to interact, but when we got back to Stockholm for our concert at Fasching things really started to click. It’s a shame that the tour had to end there because the three of us could feel that we were beginning to really connect; our thinking was moving in the same direction and we were playing music as a trio, not as three individuals trying to figure out how to turn something on a piece of paper into something real.
The next morning I got onto a plane and flew to Chicago. A month and a half of music, played by four different lineups (Sonore, FME, Nilssen-Love/Stackenas/Vandermark, Jon Vanderlander Trio), had just come to an end.
-Ken Vandermark, Chicago, 11/20/06
© 2024 Ken Vandermark – musician & composer | Disclaimer