EST © Andrea Canter

E.S.T. is Esbjörn Svensson on piano, Dan Berglund on bass, and Magnus Öström on drums. Dubbed “Europe’s leading jazz trio,” winner of several Swedish Grammys, named “Best International Act” at last year’s BBC Jazz Awards, they’re the first European jazz group to make the cover of Downbeat and probably the only Swedish jazz group that ever will. Jamie Cullum loves them, and so does Pat Metheny. Keith Jarrett recommended them to Japan’s top promoter. Their thousands of friends on MySpace include Metheny, Wilco, and Bjork. In Scandinavia and Europe, they’re a supergroup, charting gold and/or platinum and filling large venues, for which they bring out the light shows and fog machines. Here across the pond they perform without the special effects and draw smaller crowds, no doubt due to the “jazz trio” label. That’s too bad, because their music is such a wildly eclectic, rhythmically diverse yet utterly absorbing mix—jazz, classical, pop, rock, blues, jam band, drum ’n’ bass, funk, electronic, techno, trippy, a hint of ambient and a dose of grunge—that there’s something for almost everyone.

Rachel Z

Be it a blessing or curse, Z’s eclectic appetite has proven a commercial success over the release of eight recordings, bridging genres and sonic sensibilities in reaching listeners from multiple generations. And assuming the diverse origins of musical ideas are simultaneously irrelevant and basic to modern jazz, Z’s newest recording should serve to place her exactly where she belongs—among the most talented and inventive of 21^st century post bop magicians, one who should appeal equally to those raised on U2 and Smashing Pumpkins and those steeped in the lineage of Evans, Jarrett, Hancock and Tyner. Released in mid March on Savoy Jazz, the eponymous Dept of Good and Evil will be celebrated at the Dakota in Minneapolis (April 6-7), Jazz Standard in Manhattan (April 10-11), and Blues Alley in Washington, DC (April 12). Joining Rachel Z will be her “Good and Evil” trio-mates, Maeve Royce on bass and Bobbie Rae (also producer and arranger) on drums.

Life Less Ordinary

Despite the two monster hits, and the overall success of her current album, Abair has not been seduced by her notoriety and told me in a recent interview, “It is a fun thing to look at on a chart, but it doesn’t really mean anything in the whole spectrum of things. In the true world, the mortal world, people don’t care whether your songs are number ten, number fifty or number one, but as an artist, number one sounds really cool (she laughs) and we all love to go number one.”

You start listening to Bradley Leighton’s Back To The Funk and you enjoy it for a couple of tunes until the songs begin to blend together becoming indistinguishable from one another. These would be great tunes for an elevator ride or while waiting for your plane to leave the tarmac but not for an entire album.

The second track “Flow” sounds a lot like the first cut “Runaway” only slowed down. It is a little more ethereal and sounds very much like the music they pair with those nature CDs that help you to relax.

The CD cover lists Scott Kyle (trombone), John Rekevics (tenor, baritone and alto sax), Evan Marks (guitars), Brad Steinwehe (trumpet), drummer Duncan Moore, bassist Cecil McBee, Alan Phillips (keys percussion, piano) and of course Leighton on alto flute. The horns are so subdued one wonders if they were really necessary and the guitars are used sparingly. It appears that Leighton and co-writer/arranger/composer Phillips could have recorded this CD with the flute, a drum kit and a keyboard. Marks’ brief guitar solo during “Clear Blue Skies” is minimalist and the primary function appears to be to serve as a bridge.

At the end of February, I had a chance to visit and dine with Washington DC saxophonist Jeff Antoniuk who was returning to his native Canada for the week to act as an adjudicator for a province wide high school jazz competition. Most of our conversation focused on his new CD Here Today, his debut solo effort in which he was joined by his band The Jazz Update. At the time, the album was ranked number twenty-five on the national airplay list and by the end of March had spent ten weeks in the top fifty.

“Not in a million years did I think I would be on the chart at all. I just wanted to get my music recorded and out to some people so the fact that it is accepted on some levels, I am not really sure what to make of that yet. It is certainly exciting and I am certainly happy about it. It is affirming to me. I would continue what I am doing anyway but it is nice to have somebody say, ‘yes you are on the right track, I like your sound.’ That certainly feels good and it is nice to know that you are communicating with people,” says the affable Antoniuk.

For the most part straight ahead jazz, university, National Public Radio and satellite radio stations have been the biggest cheerleaders for Here Today. While “Springfield” is the song that opens this collection of fine tunes, it is compositions such as Antoniuk’s interpretation of the Thelonious Monk song “Four In One”, Duke Ellington’s “Prelude To A Kiss” and Antoniuk’s original piece “Rain” that capture the imagination.