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Author of Funny Valentine, an acclaimed new biography of the jazz trumpet player and singer, Chet Baker.
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Saturday, 23 June 2018 17:53

Esbjörn Svensson Trio - Live In London

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Stunning live recording from London's Barbican Centre shows European trio at the peak of their powers.

The Esbjörn Svensson Trio, more commonly abbreviated to e.s.t., were one of the most successful ‘crossover’ jazz bands of recent years, effortlessly blurring the boundaries between jazz, electronica, rock and even classical. When non-jazz fans asked me for a recommendation of albums that would help them ‘get’ modern jazz, I would often recommend one of the mid-period e.s.t. albums like , which came out just as the band started to take off, and gain wider recognition.

Pianist Esbjörn Svensson died at the age of 44 in a tragic scuba diving accident, just as the band’s sound was starting to evolve, moving away from the melodic compositions that helped to define their sound, towards a more improvised framework that could be heard on Leococyte (2008), the final studio album released in Svensson’s lifetime. 

Since then, their has been surprisingly little ‘new’ material released by their record company, ACT Music. Their was the inevitable compilation album, Retrospective (2009), which is a good starting point for anyone interested in the band, and then 301 (2012), another studio cut from the Leococyte sessions. The only other album to emerge since then was E.S.T. Symphony (2016), an album of classical music based on the band’s compositions.

One would perhaps have expected more live recordings to be released, so it was exciting to hear the label’s plans to release Live In London, a double CD which was recorded at the Barbican Centre in May 2005, as part of a tour to support the Viaticum album (also 2005). 

The material played that evening came from band’s preceding three albums – Strange Place For Snow, Seven Days Of Falling and Viaticum. The show opens with Tide Of Trepidation, the opening track from Viaticum, which opens with an almost stately piano and drums from Svensson and Magnus Öström, before the funky bass line comes in, courtesy of Dan Berglund. As one would expect, the tune evolves in a live setting, and features a wonderful solo from Svensson before the band rejoin to bring the tune to an exciting climax. A pulsating Eighty-Eight Days In My Veins follows, Beglund’s dancing bass line a reminder of his pivotal role in the band. 

Mingle In The Mincing Machine is one of the many highlights. The dramatic opening, complete with electronic effects, creates an audible buzz in the crowd. There’s a real vibrancy to the band’s playing, as they evolve into a power trio over the course of fourteen minutes, Berglund’s bass almost morphing into an electric guitar.

It’s a well-paced show, with funkier, noisier tunes interspersed with more delicate ballads, like Viaticum and In The Tail Of Her Eye, where once can more easily hear the influence of Keith Jarrett on Svensson’s playing.

The second half of the show sees the band going back to some of their older material, including fine re-workings of When God Created The Coffeebreak and Behind The Yashmak, before a funky version of Spunky Sprawl brings the show to a satisfying conclusion.

Live In London is the band’s third proper live recording to emerge, after the early Live ’95 and excellent Live In Hamburg (2007)Live In Berlin (2005) was issued a ‘bonus’ album with Viaticum. The exceptional quality of this new album – both in terms of the material, and the recording quality – leaves me hoping that ACT recorded more live material.

 

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