Seamus Blake - Bridges

The Guardian 60

(AMP)

Seamus Blake, the Mingus Big Band saxophonist, is a contemporary jazz artist firmly rooted in the mainstream, but he likes conversations with people who aren’t. This refined set was made in Oslo with a young Norwegian group featuring the Kenny Wheeler-influenced trumpeter Hayden Powell and sleek pianist Espen Berg. The Norwegians are low-key but intimately bonded, and the ensemble sound has a graceful polyphonic warmth throughout, with some understated edginess in Blake’s Wayne Shorter moments and in three all-improv tracks. Drummer Anders Thorén’s Song for Karla is a jazz ballad with a north European folk spin. Berg’s Tredje has a powerfully swooping horn line over a seductively funky groove. Blake’s Extranjero is hauntingly Wheeler-esque in its phrase-chasing buildups, and an adventurous version of the classic Dear Old Stockholm is the standout track in its horn interplay and cannily sidelong advance toward the tune.