Idag

The Lars-Erik Norrström Trio is a brilliant trio from Sweden whose members include Lars-Erik Norrström on piano and keyboards, Bruno Råberg on acoustic bass, and Terje Sundby on drums. Their debut CD is titled Idag. It contains 15 compositions all written by Norrström except for "Sculpture III," which is the third part of the free collective improvisational suite originally presented on Bruno Råberg's CD entitled Presence. The trio is in great form with this exciting collection of free jazz compositions that characterize the trio's collective improvisational skills and their ability to depict several free-form patterns without the usual preset harmonic or formal structures. The trio bends, expands, and reshapes the rules of counterpoint on such songs as "Ship to Vega," which opens with a Baroque-like basso continuo and then shifts into a free improvisation by the full ensemble. "Africa" is astounding. The song opens slowly with a vocal tuning and then suddenly the trio abandons the process and sets a free and creative blaze to the song's contrapuntal fabric. Lars-Erik Norrström is an excellent pianist who emphasizes the complete independence of component melodies while simultaneously evoking several moods at once from the piano. Norrström's selection of significant motives and phrases and their duplication in this great arrangement along with the superior rhythmic accompaniment of Råberg's bass and Sundby's amazing drumming on this piece is electrifying. Lars-Erik Norrström Trio gives an awesome clinic that provokes and expands the definition of free jazz and it's well worth the 60 minutes.