About

On his second leader album for ECM – following on from the prizewinning Gefion - Danish guitarist Jakob Bro continues to refine his trio project, with its emphases on melody, sound, space, layered textures and interaction. The rapport between Bro and Thomas Morgan (Bro calls him “my musical soul mate”) has become something extraordinary, and often guitarist and bassist develop improvisational ideas in parallel. There’s an historical aptness, too, in the choice of Joey Baron as the band’s new drummer, for Bro first encountered Morgan when the bassist was playing in Baron’s band a decade ago… On Streams Joey Baron dives into the music’s detail with obvious pleasure. This recording features five new Bro pieces: “Opal”, “Full Moon Europa”, “Shell Pink”, “Sisimiut” and “Heroines” (heard in both a trio version and a particularly lovely solo version). Completing the album’s repertoire is the freely improvised “PM Dream”, dedicated to the late Paul Motian. Jakob’s approach to melody acknowledges the influence of Motian, and both Bro and Morgan played in the late drummer’s ensembles . Recorded at Studios La Buissonne in the South of France in November 2015 and produced by Manfred Eicher, Streams is issued on the eve of a major tour by the Bro-Morgan-Baron trio with dates in Denmark, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Belgium, Poland, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Ukraine and South Korea.

“Danish guitarist Jakob Bro creates magical music, impossible to categorize or capture. The songs on ‘Streams’ are best described as jewels revolving in mid-air, reflecting and refracting light. […] The beauty of ‘Streams’ is in its unknowingness, its sense of wonder and possibility.” -  Ken Micallef, Downbeat

“Bro’s compositions are panoramic, with tones at once sedate and ever shifting. His skillful echo and reverb weave a thrumming surface, upon which the musicians evince a delicate chemistry. Sometimes the sound will push into tense, eruptive territory, as on ‘Full Moon Europa’, which evolves  from Morgan and Bro’s single-note unison pluckings to blistering guitar exhortations goaded by Baron’s all-over the kit assaults.” - Matt R. Lohr, Jazz Times

“For all the guitarist’s fondness for understatedly conversational north European jazz-making, this trio is a highly melodic and unpredictably dramatic outfit. The gently weaving ‘Heroines’ is as open as a pop ballad in its ringing guitar line, solicitously escorted by Thomas Morgan’s supple bass and Baron’s patterings and cymbal tingles (Bro repeats it later as an unaccompanied solo). And the Paul Motian dedication ‘PM Dream’ – a collective-improv adventure initiated by Motian admirer Baron – grippingly begins in palpitating long tones, bass urgings and snare-drum twitches before becoming metallic, electronic and intense. […] This is far from guitar-hero music, but it’s full of laid-back character.” - John Fordham, The Guardian

Source: Press Release

Featured artists:

• Jakob Bro - Guitar
• Thomas Morgan  - Double Bass
• Joey Baron - Drums

Tracklist:

Side A:

1. Opal
2. Heroines
3. PM Dream

Side B:

1. Full Moon Europa
2. Shell Pink
3. Heroines (variation)
4. Sisimiut

Item description: