– THE QUIET RIOT –

The lockdown has hurt many people in a great many professions but one of the worst affected – in terms of impact on their livelihood – has surely been musicians. Since revenues from physical sales were hit by the emergence of streaming over a decade ago, the money made from live performances has been the life-blood of nearly all artists but especially so in the case of more niche genres such as jazz.

A community of fierce improvisers (in many senses of the word), stories have emerged of visionaries within the genre finding new ways to share live recordings with their fans in the last few months. But one of my favourites comes from Sweden where Jazzagenturen – a Stockholm-based network of trad-jazz musicians and bands led by charismatic frontman Pontus de Wolfe – came together to record a 12-hour, non-stop session which resulted in 50 sprawling songs in total.

These recordings were made as a means of compensating the contributing musicians during a time when nearly all of their work was taken away from them. All royalties and contributions will be split equally between the participants as “a symbol of their dependence on each other and the importance of having each others’ backs during difficult times”.

The first single from those sessions, Långfredag (“Good Friday”) was written by pianist Fredrik Hermansson and its breezy, breathy disposition barely betrays the discord going on in each contributor’s life right now.

It is a soothing balm for troubled times and a timely throwback to simpler ones.

If you like this, try: my review of Jazzmeia Horn’s Green Eyes. The first album from the event, Stockholm Corona Sessions Vol. 1 is out on 12 June through Bra Skivor.

HEAR MORE HERE

JAX BEATS + BLK OZWALD + ROSIE P: CHILLS
MEDHANE: I’M DEADASS
ÖSTERGREN STRÖMKVIST TRIO: LIAM’S LABYRINTH
⣎⡇ꉺლ༽இ•̛)ྀ◞ ༎ຶ ༽ৣৢ؞ৢ؞ؖ ꉺლ: ࿃ूੂ࿃ूੂੂ࿃ूੂOOOOOOOOOOOO　̟̞̝̜̙̘̗̖҉̵̴̨̧̢̡̼̻̺̹̳̲̱̰̯̮̭̬̫̪̩̦̥̤̣̠҈͈͇͉͍͎͓͔͕͖͙͚͜͢͢͢͢͢͢͢͢͢͢͢͢͢͢ͅ ooooooooo

P.S. You can find all of the tracks reviewed above in the 45 Revolutions per Minute playlist below or click to access the Future Jazz Playlist on Spotify itself.

If you like what you hear (or even if you don’t), please engage in dialogue with me @45rpm_Reviews on Twitter. And, if you’d like to receive updates weekly, please subscribe to the email list to get these recommendations sent to your inbox weekly.

Until next time, love and noise.

– SV –