Jakob Bro: Uma Elmo

Rating: ★★★

Record and Artist Details

Musicians:

Arve Henriksen
Jakob Bro (el g)
Jorge Rossy

Label:

ECM

March/2021

Media Format:

CD, LP, DL

Catalogue Number:

2702

RecordDate:

Rec. 2020

This album, composed by Danish guitarist Jakob Bro, is an antithesis to fidget culture. It resets listening, and exhumes a quiet concentration that's so often neglected. With Norwegian trumpeter Arve Henriksen and Spaniard Jorge Rossy on drums, it is a trio of notable skill – revealed not only by the press note that this recording was their first ever meeting, but how they sink into what this album is; without any need to show it.

Uma Elmo (the middle names of Bro's two young children), may read as an ethereal work but is fiercely committed to every single note and space - and what it leaves to the imagination. Much can be fathomed from the opening track, ‘Reconstructing A Dream’. Bro's music is kinetic and intense, and yet, beyond grasp; as if clawing to recall a fading dream, it seems to wisp into thin air. His guitar is almost inaudible at times, so it's rewarding when, as here, the track's petals unfurl and reveal a deep-red bud with Bro striking darker chords under Arve Henriksen's earnest calls and tremors. Bro shares grimier vibrations before a shimmering denouement fades under Henriksen's last note.

The 11-minute piece ‘Housework’ is also convincing with Bro's fuzzy reverb and steely single notes seeking our notice, and when he breaks down into a higgledy mess of watery notes, it's particularly poignant. You can sense the early love of Hendrix that took him to the guitar, aged 12, after starting with trumpet. This is significant because there is a distinct reverence for the trumpet, not just in his tribute ‘To Stańko', dedicated to Tomasz Stańko (Bro was in his Dark Eyes Quintet), but in his close listening throughout for Henriksen's stories.

Despite having such an inimitable sound, Arve's range is as wide as human emotion and in the first of two versions of ‘Morning Song’ his powdery, snow-like tone sings a melody that laments, while Bro plays notes like a soothing parent. The trio's interplay is sympathique, and Rossy has a knack of perceivable presence while playing few beats, simply a well-placed roll or murmur. We should hope this album is the start of something, and not the end.

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