A Scandinavian influence was detectable in this early Wednesday evening double bill, even if one of the groups hails from the warm south of Italy rather than cooler Nordic climes.
Pianist Kekko Fornarelli's trio has something of Sweden's greatest jazz export of recent times, EST, about it in its combining of acoustic piano with electronic effects and its use of rock rhythms to drive the music on.
If Fornarelli doesn't, as yet, have the knack of creating memorable compositions that his counterpart, the late Esbjorn Svensson enjoyed, often through jamming with his bass and drums team, and if his trio has yet to develop the gradual, almost imperceptible shifts in dynamics that made EST at its best such an appealing proposition, then he is still heading in the right direction.
Times Goes On, with its vaguely church music-like chord progression, and Daily Jungle, with its crisp, urgent drum pattern, proved to be the stronger items in the set. It featured some attractive, if rather slight ideas, and well integrated group work but lacked the emotional engagement that stronger solo building might have brought.
There was nothing vague about the church music influence in pianist Espen Eriksen and trumpeter Gunnar Halle's playing.
This was cool, refreshing chamber jazz that Martin Luther himself had a hand in – or at least a co-written hymn.
Halle's clear, songlike phrasing and clever use of breathiness as both a melodic and rhythmic device was complemented splendidly by his fellow Norwegian's understated musicality in duets that created conversational improvisations from folk melodies as well as a decidedly familiar harvest hymn.
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