Bushman's Revenge: Et Hån Mot Overklassen
Hubro

Gard Nilssen's Acoustic Unity: To Whom Who Buys A Record
Odin

Gard Nilssen's a powerhouse of a drummer, but he's also a force to be reckoned with as a bandleader. He leads, obviously, Acoustic Unity, even if composing credits are shared with bandmates Petter Eldh (double bass) and André Roligheten (saxophones, bass clarinet), and provides muscular backbone to bassist Rune Nergaard and guitarist Even Helte Hermansen in Bushman's Revenge. Besides those outfits, Nilssen also plays in sPacemoNkey (which he co-founded five years ago), the recently formed Amgala Temple, and Supersonic Orchestra, a behemoth assembled for this years's Molde Jazz Festival, which boasts no less than three drummers, three double bassists, and a ten-piece horn section. While they can't claim to paint a complete picture, these new releases by Acoustic Unity and Bushman's Revenge offer a solid account of Nilssen's many gifts.

While the album title, of course, nods in Ornette's direction (1975‘s To Whom Keeps a Record), To Whom Who Buys A Record isn't so much an homage (though the legend's influence is perceptible) as an indirect pitch by Nilssen on behalf of old-school album purchasing rather than streaming. That said, a track title such as “Dancing Shadows” certainly looks like a mashup of “Dancing in Your Head” and “Broken Shadows,” while “Acoustic Unity” plays like the type of ballad Coleman might have recorded during his Something Else!!!! and Tomorrow is the Question! days (the band name, on the other hand, alludes to Albert Ayler's 1965 album Spiritual Unity).

Musically, many of the twelve tunes are rooted in the style spearheaded by Coleman and other firebrands of the ‘60s, but the album's no lethargic, retrograde affair. Nilssen and company tear into the material, and in so doing scatter to the wind any preoccupation with time-lines. From the first moment of “Cherry Man,” Eldh and Nilssen stoke fire and the ever-voluble Roligheten more than holds up his end. Reminiscent of even earlier jazz times, only one flab-free performance inches past the five-minute mark. In contrast to the standard trio template where the bassist and drummer act as accompanists to the melody-carrying lead, Nilssen's is a band of equals.

There's much to recommend about the recording. His kick drum booming, the leader animates “Masakråke” with a punchy, Latin-tinged pattern over which Roligheten drapes a staccato, Pied Piper-like melody, the tune's four minutes amounting to one of the album's most exhilarating rides. In “Omkalfatring,” Roligheten voices his parts with clarinet and saxophone simultaneously, a gesture that in turn amplifies the live feel of the performance; he also leads the charge in the rousing “Bõtteknott,” initially wielding tenor before punctuating his partners' broil with double horns. The light speed at which the trio executes “Rat on a Skateboard” dazzles the ear, but Acoustic Unity handles slow tempi as effectively. “Broken Beauty,” for instance, captures the ease of the trio's interplay in a ballad context, with Roligheten enhancing the fluttering melody with vibrato and Nilssen embellishing with cymbal washes and brushed drums.

To Whom Who Buys A Record is the third album from the trio, which earlier released Firehouse and Live In Europe. If the new one makes the group sound like a well-oiled machine, it should: four years on from the recording of Firehouse and with over a hundred gigs under its belt, the new set, recorded in one room sans amplification, sees Acoustic Unity in full flight, the interplay intense and the performances visceral.

The Bushman's Revenge set, Et Hån Mot Overklassen (which roughly translates as ‘A Mockery of the Upper Class'), is the group's Hubro debut, but the Norwegian trio's been together for years. After debuting on the Jazzaway label with 2007's Cowboy Music, the band issued eight titles on Rune Grammofon before this Hubro outing. Bass, drums, and guitar (soprano, baritone, etc.) constitute the nucleus of its attack, but Nilssen, Nergaard, and Hermansen augment that core with percussion, vibraphone, Wurlitzer, organ, toy piano, and electronics. While the three operate as equals, it's hard not to regard the trio as guitar-directed, not merely because the instrument is the primary melodic element but also because Hermansen contributes so expansively to the group's sound. That said, Bushman's Revenge very much presents itself as a singular, multi-limbed entity whose parts work together in service to the whole.

Recorded at Oslo's Amper Tone Studio, the album features ten pieces whose authorship's credited to members individually (five to Hermansen, one apiece to the others) and in three cases to all three. There are heavy, riff-driven tracks, to be sure, but also atmospheric explorations that add an almost dark ambient-styled dimension to the recording. With no breaks between tracks, the album plays like a live set, with the trio segueing from one style to the next with all the ease one would expect from musicians who've played together so long.

Hermansen's command of effects is well-accounted for in the opener “Sly Love With a Midnight Creeper,” what with its psychedelic treatments; soon enough, however, Nilssen's vibes and the guitarist's shadings nudge it into noir jazz territory, the resultant track notable for its subtlety. The subsequent “Folk Kremtar no av og Til Berre i Lause Lufta og” perpetuates the explorative sensibility with the trio this time birthing a nightmarish dronescape that plays like an improv, especially when credited to all three. The stylistic character shifts again with Nilssen's “Happy Hour for Mr. Sanders,” the trio now digging into a structured composition whose melodic framework gives Hermansen a springboard for all manner of extemporizations. With sitar-like shadings included in the atmospheric design, his “A Bottle a Day Keeps the Wolves at Bay” reintroduces the psychedelic aura of the opener, even if a strong melodic figure largely locates the material in blues-rock territory. The guitarist's tremolo twang and low-slung voicings are ear-catching, for sure, but the empathetic support by Nilssen and Nergaard are as responsible for the music's narcotic effect.

August 2019