Purcor: Songs For Saxophone And Piano

Regular: £13.99

Sale
Regular: £13.99

Sold Out

Unit Price: per

Cat No: 2743227

Release Date: 18 October 2010

Label: ECM

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 602527432274

Genres: Jazz

Description
Trygve Seim's sixth ECM recording as leader or co-leader, subtitled "Songs for saxophone and piano", is an intensely melodic album providing overdue documentation of a duo that already has a 14-year history. His partner here is fellow Norwegian, keyboard player Andreas Utnem. The disc quietly covers a lot of ground, with repertoire including new musical settings of parts of the Mass, folk songs, theatre music, improvisations, and a new version of Seim's softly-breathing meditation "Bhavana" (first heard on 'Different Rivers').

In the mid-1990s pianist-composer Andreas Utnem, working with Norway's Church City Mission foundation, invited saxophonist Seim to join him for selected church services, improvising around variations on the psalms and playing compositions by both. This developed into an informal regular 'gig' and in 2008 the players decided to record the special music they had shaped along the way. 'Purcor' was recorded at TÃ¸yen Kirke, a church in the older part of Oslo.

From disc to disc, Seim's scope as an improviser is expanding. His saxophone ballad playing now has a tenderness and depth of feeling that has drawn comparisons with Ben Webster - although he is quick to point out that Purcor is not really a "jazz" album: "Andreas's background is quite different from my own, but there is something about his composing that brings out a 'focussing' quality in my playing. Over time we've arrived at a special simplicity and clarity in the music." Andreas Utnem has recently begun to receive international attention through his work with the trio of Norwegian folk fiddler Gjermund Larsen.

Personnel: Trygve Seim (tenor and soprano saxophones), Andreas Utnem (piano, harmonium)
Tracklisting